A third of IT projects carried out in the private sector runs between 10 and 20 percent over the original budget, according to a CIO survey.
One in four projects costs 50 percent more than it was expected to, according to the survey of 100 chief information officers, which also found that the typical large company is running 29 projects at any one time.
According to the research, sponsored by software management company CA, the main reasons for overspending include poor forecasting, increases in project scope, and issues of interdependencies and conflicts between multiple projects.
It said this isn't helped by the lack of visibility and control chief information officers have over their project portfolios -- 39 percent of IT directors do not have clear visibility of projects and so do not know when they are close to running over budget.
CA said the survey shows that chief information officers are still principally being judged on whether they deliver within budget rather than whether they deliver strategic value to the business.
Staffing is also an issue, with highly skilled workers being assigned tasks off-the-cuff rather than being strategically placed where they would be most effective, according to the survey.
Bupesh Jain of Silicon.com reported from London.
Well I can tell you why I often go over budget. When quoting for a project it goes a little something like this:
Manager: How long will this take you?
Me: Five days.
Manager: What?! *Five* days? It's a simple task. Are you sure?
Me. Yes. It's more complex than it looks.
Manager: Take another look.
Me: Fine. Three days.
Manager: That's better.
So I end up taking five days for a three-day project because someone couldn't stomach the real cost of the development.