A Qualitative Exploration Case Study of Agile Project Failure Research

This research proposal investigates the high failure rate of agile projects, particularly in large-scale, high-value projects. The study aims to identify the root causes of these failures through a qualitative case study approach, examining real-world examples of failed agile projects. The research will explore whether failures stem from internal or external factors, and whether alternative methodologies might be more suitable. A literature review highlights existing research on agile project failures, including issues like lack of stakeholder involvement, weak leadership, poor communication, undefined scope, and a focus on project success over learning. The findings are intended to benefit Scrum Masters and project managers, providing insights to improve project planning, methodology selection, and implementation to mitigate the risks of agile project failure. The research will use various online resources and company reports to gather data, with the goal of providing practical solutions to common problems, ultimately helping organizations avoid financial losses and project failures.

Running Head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
A Qualitative Exploration Case Study to the High Rate of Agile Project
Failure
Name of the Student
Name of the University

1RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Introduction
Project Management Methodologies include a set of various processes and methods that
are being used for conducting various types of projects. The selection of methodology depends
on the nature, scale and type of the project. Some of the most common project management
methodologies include waterfall, agile, scrum and others. During selection of the methodology, it
is important to determine whether the choice of methodology is suitable and feasible for the
project or not. Recently, it has been found that the projects that are using Agile methodology are
failing on a regular basis (Taherdoost & Keshavarzsaleh, 2018). Compared to other
methodologies, agile projects are showing significantly high percentage of failure, especially in
large scale projects that have considerable amount of monetary and commercial values (Truong
& Jitbaipoon, 2016). Considering the growing failure rates of agile projects, it is important to
conduct a detailed study on the same in order to identify the exact reasons behind the failure of
these projects. The objective of this research to conduct this study and find out the root causes
behind the failure of the agile projects. If suitable solutions to the problems can be found through
this research, it will attract attention of business and project leaders to review the study and find
out the underlying issues of agile project failure so that they can be mitigated before proceeding
with the project.
In this research, a detailed study will be conducted on agile projects especially those
which have failed even after proper planning and significant amount of financial investment.
Since, large scale and multimillion dollar projects are failing due to the use of agile
methodology, there must be some common root causes that are resulting in the failure of the
projects (Dhir, Kumar & Singh, 2019). In order to conduct a detailed research, case studies from

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failed agile projects will be collected and studied that will help to gather a lot of data regarding
the failure of the projects. In the context of large scale projects, it is of utmost necessity to
identify why agile projects are failing and whether this methodology should be scrapped
completely in order to prevent financial losses and failure of the major projects. It is also
important to know whether the agile projects are failing due to internal or external factors such
that the organisations can modify their project management approaches and methodologies
accordingly in order to prevent failure and financial losses (Layton & Ostermiller, 2017).
Furthermore, in the research, it will be explored whether other methodologies are better than
agile and whether those can be modified and implemented in projects that primarily require agile
methodology.
In this paper, the focus will be on collecting as much data as possible on failed agile
projects through various online resources and reports posted by the companies such that the
reasons behind the failure of agile projects can be identified and studied. The research outcomes
will benefit the Scrum Masters who will be able to identify the problems early during the
planning of the project and design the methodology accordingly such that the project does not
fail after being initiated. This paper will motivate project managers (or scrum masters, since the
focus is on agile projects) to understand the root causes of agile project failures such that they
reconsider their choice of project methods or make modifications within the traditional methods
in order to overcome the most common issues such that the projects do not fail in the long run.
Problem Statement and Justification
The main problem under focus in this research is the failure of agile projects in the global
context. In spite of being a well-tested and proven methodology, use of agile has resulted in

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failure of numerous multimillion dollar projects in various business and commercial
organisations that have raised questions regarding its usability in the projects (Jørgensen, 2018).
In addition, there has not been any detailed research on the application of agile methodology in
various types of projects and hence, there are very few reports on the root causes of failure of
agile projects with specific reference to real world case studies. As a result, scrum masters still
do not have a definitive idea about the root causes of failure of agile projects and hence, extra
initiatives are generally not taken to identify and resolve the issues before initiating the project
through agile methodology (Abdalhamid & Mishra, 2017).
One of the major problems is that in spite of high failure rate of agile projects, many of
the project managers still prefer to choose agile methodology over others (Chiyangwa &
Mnkandla, 2017). The main reasons behind the selection of agile over other methodologies are
discussed as follows.
Lower Cost – One of the main reasons behind the use of agile methodology in projects is
that it requires much lesser cost that the other available methodologies (although this can be a
quite misleading statement, as per Dhir, Kumar and Singh (2019), since the costs of agile
projects are less only if the methodology suits the project and the organisation as a whole). As a
result, project managers choose agile methodology as the costs can be cut down and the saved
amount can invested elsewhere in the project (Darwish & Rizk, 2015). However, the project
managers lack insight that in spite of cost control, if the project fails, the company faces
considerable amount of monetary losses.
Considering the problems and drawbacks of the agile methodology that also seem to be
beneficial for the project managers initially, it is important to publish the results of the research

4RESEARCH PROPOSAL
so as to prove that agile methodology is not suitable for all projects and the high rate of failure of
agile projects are mostly due a large number of reasons that originate mostly from the problems
discussed above. In addition to these, the inexperience of the project managers in handling agile
projects also contributes to the failure of the agile projects. Hence, the research aims to find
appropriate solution to the problems that are causing high rates of failure of agile projects.
Literature Review
The failure of agile projects has reached an alarming level such that large scale business
organisations have started encountering failed projects and are losing millions of dollars for the
same. As compared to projects using other methodologies, the rate of failure of agile projects
have been significantly high (Gregory et al., 2015).
According to the authors Dhir, Kumar and Singh (2019), agile methodology is a very
popular project management methodology that is widely preferred by project managers due to
the extensive amount of flexibility allowed by the methodology compared to the other
methodologies. Furthermore, agile methodology allows making changes while the project is in
the execution stage and agile projects are preferred by the organisations over other
methodologies.
However, Jørgensen (2018) published in his work that too much flexibility in the agile
method actually hampers the overall quality of the project. He referred to large scale projects that
require highest quality outcome and emphasised that although agile technique is preferred, it is
not suitable for such projects (Jørgensen, 2018). There are numerous drawbacks and challenges
in agile method that makes it unsuitable for large scale projects that have focus on high quality
outcomes.

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Taherdoost and Keshavarzsaleh (2018) said that one the main reasons behind the high
failure rate of agile methodology is that agile method relies strongly on the involvement of all
team members and stakeholders of the project simultaneously. However, in most of the cases, it
has been seen the stakeholders are not available together at the same time and prefer to work in
separate and discrete shifts. As a result, the core value of agile method is not built up that results
in failure of the overall project.
According to Abdalhamid and Mishra (2017), another major reason behind the failure of
agile projects is weak leadership throughout the project. The authors noted that in most of the
cases, in spite of being a large scale project, weak project leaders have been assigned who only
have the target of completing the project with minimal effort and reduced costs. As a result, the
quality of the project outcome is reduced and there are major discrepancies in the project that
ultimately lead to project failure.
Chiyangwa and Mnkandla (2017) noted in their works that agile projects also fail due to
lack of proper communication between the stakeholders and other team members. As per the
authors, agile projects require strong and continuous communication between the team members
and stakeholders otherwise the projects can go off track and fail. Due to the lack of
communication, most of the projects fail to materialise as per the plans and ultimately fail,
resulting in significant financial losses for the companies.
As per Truong and Jitbaipoon (2016), agile projects also fail due to lack of proper scope
identification and abstract requirements set during the initiation. One of the main characteristics
of agile method is the identification of only the main requirements of the project and then track
the less important requirements during various sprints and incorporate them into the project. Due

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to this characteristic approach, the scope is not always well defined and the project is initiated
anyway by focussing on the primary requirements. As a result, the project often goes out of
control during the sprints and ultimately fails in the long run.
Layton and Ostermiller (2017) said that an unorthodox view regarding failure of the agile
projects and said that in most of the failed projects, the managers and the teams focussed
strongly on project success rather than learning from the various stages and parts of the project.
Agile projects thrive when the learning is the main value, which is used to make spontaneous
improvement in the project with an end goal to produce the best quality outcome for the project.
However, when the managers and the teams are completely success driven and do not care about
learning from the project, the project are bound to fail in the long run.
Osman and Musa (2016) blamed the actions of team members and stakeholders for
failing agile projects. As per the authors, agile projects require constant involvement of team
members along with spontaneous development within the project but it is the fault of the team
members who invest their time in other activities and engage themselves outside the project. As a
result, the project fails to develop as per the requirements and fail in the long run.
Gregory, Barroca, Sharp, Deshpande and Taylor (2016) said that most of the project
management methodologies have a set of best practices and guidelines that help and guide the
project manager to successful management of the project. However, agile does not have such
best practices list and hence, there is no specific management methodology to follow for the
project managers. They just experiment with various practices, accept the best ones and check
off the bad ones. This is especially inconvenient for a project when a number of different

7RESEARCH PROPOSAL
departments are assigned in the project and their management practices do not match throughout
the course of the project.
According to Owens, Merhout and Khazanchi (2018), agile lacks cohesive sets of metrics
that define the quality of the project. Agile projects focus on the final outcome rather than the
quality of outcome of the project. As a result, most of the project managers do not focus on
project quality and this hampers the overall quality of large scale projects. This also leads to
failure of projects that are basically dependant on the quality of final outcome of the project.
Lappi and Aaltonen (2017) explained that scope creep is widely prevalent in the agile
projects that ultimately lead to the failure of the projects. As per the authors, scope creep occurs
when the project managers and team members do not sufficiently focus on the progress of the
project and there is no monitoring process involved. As a result, scope creep occurs and deviates
the project from its actual roadmap moving it towards the wrong outcome. When this occurs in
large scale projects, the project ultimately fails if actions are not taken at the right time.
It can be concluded that most of the literature have discussed about various problems that
ultimately lead to the failure of the agile projects. In spite of all the information gathered from
the literature, it has also been found there is significant gap in research since most of the works
have focussed on the problems faced in agile projects but very few researchers have developed
or discussed any potential solutions for preventing failures of agile projects.

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References
Abdalhamid, S., & Mishra, A. (2017). Factors in agile methods adoption. TEM Journal, 6(2),
416.
Bierwolf, R. (2016). Project excellence or failure? Doing is the best kind of learning. IEEE
Engineering Management Review, 44(2), 26-32.
Chiyangwa, T. B., & Mnkandla, E. (2017). Modelling the critical success factors of agile
software development projects in South Africa. South African Journal of Information
Management, 19(1), 1-8.
Darwish, N. R., & Rizk, N. M. (2015). Multi-dimensional success factors of agile software
development projects. International Journal of Computer Applications, 118(15).
Dhir, S., Kumar, D., & Singh, V. B. (2019). Success and failure factors that impact on project
implementation using agile software development methodology. In Software
Engineering(pp. 647-654). Springer, Singapore.
Gregory, P., Barroca, L., Sharp, H., Deshpande, A., & Taylor, K. (2016). The challenges that
challenge: Engaging with agile practitioners’ concerns. Information and Software
Technology, 77, 92-104.
Gregory, P., Barroca, L., Taylor, K., Salah, D., & Sharp, H. (2015, May). Agile challenges in
practice: a thematic analysis. In International Conference on Agile Software
Development(pp. 64-80). Springer, Cham.

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Jørgensen, M. (2018, May). Do agile methods work for large software projects?. In International
Conference on Agile Software Development (pp. 179-190). Springer, Cham.
Lappi, T., & Aaltonen, K. (2017). Project governance in public sector agile software
projects. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 10(2), 263-294.
Layton, M. C., & Ostermiller, S. J. (2017). Agile project management for dummies. John Wiley
& Sons.
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Osman, H. H., & Musa, M. E. (2016). A Survey of Agile Software Estimation
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Owens, D., Merhout, J. W., & Khazanchi, D. (2018). Project Management Assurance in Agile
Projects: Research in Progress.
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software projects from suppliers’ perspective. IJISPM-International Journal Of
Information Systems And Project Management, 4(2), 65-79.
Taherdoost, H., & Keshavarzsaleh, A. (2018). A theoretical review on IT project success/failure
factors and evaluating the associated risks.

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Truong, D., & Jitbaipoon, T. (2016). How can agile methodologies be used to enhance the
success of information technology projects?. International Journal of Information
Technology Project Management (IJITPM), 7(2), 1-16.