One of the more interesting issues around project failure though is that DRM projects not only rely on inside resources to be success, but outside resources as well. Customers, independent security researchers and ordinary hackers all have a vested interest in the DRM technology chosen by a company. However, given the idea that projects fail, with regularity in that process, the other question is why do information security projects fail, or why do DRM projects fail is a topic of discussion for this blog. In the longer run, regardless of what the project being undertaken is, the regularity in which projects fail has been the subject of research for years. There is a lot of good information about both project failure and project success. The commonalities between project failure research is interesting that between the major reports like the Bull report and the Chaos report, the commonalities are striking year to year.

The Bull report from 1998 indicated that the major cause of project failure were missed deadlines in 75% of cases, exceeded budget in 55% of cases, poor communications in 40% of cases and finally, inability to meet project requirements in 37% of cases. While the major commonalities in project success were meeting milestones in 51% of cases, maintaining quality levels in 32% of cases and meeting budget in 31% of cases. The Bull report builds the argument that the ability to maintain a successful project fall into the category of maintaining deadlines, maintaining budget, maintaining clear communications along the project information chain, and meet the project requirements that were started out with. Threat modeling the project will give a clear indication of where the process is likely to fail, and a strong Project Manager should be aware of these failure points, and develop strategies to ensure that the project is completed in time and meeting all the criteria for success. Project managers should develop contingency plans for the loss of key personnel like management supporters, key technologists, and even the loss of the key Project Manager.

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