If you build it, they will come...NOT!

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The Myth of "If You Build it, They will Come..."

The famous phrase is from the baseball movie "Field of Dreams" starring Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones. The story is about Iowa farmer, Ray, who hears a voice telling him that "if you build it, he will come". He followed the voice and eventually built a baseball field in the middle of his cornfield. The movie ended with a stream of cars heading to his field to enjoy the game.


Over the years, this phrase undergoes a subtle change to say "if you build it, they will come". For some reason, people start using the phrase to say that if we do something, it will succeed, which is a great lie!

All of us want to believe in the happy ending a la Disney movies: if we start a business, we will make lot of money, if we post a video on YouTube or start a blog, it will become viral and we will be rich and famous, if we marry, we will live happily ever after - if we start a project, it will be successful. 

Well, the real truth (and nothing but the truth) is that...

Projects fail, and many fail big time...

  1. Data from McKinsey says 70% of transformation projects fail
  2. 75% of business and IT executives anticipate that their projects will fail
  3. 70% of software project swill be late with 30% significantly late
Even the Bible has a similar story: in the Parable of the Sower as told by Jesus, out of the 4 seeds that were sown, only one (the last one) is successful. Yep, 75% of the seeds failed!

Here are some main reasons for the failure:
  • Weak personal reason
  • Lack of commitment from superiors
  • Inadequate planning
  • Absence of use involvement
  • New and unfamiliar technology 
I suspect that all will find the reasons familiar, because we all have seen in some form or another. In many cases, we did something because it seems like a good idea (at the time). Some also had the idea but we did not take action. Once we start doing the actual work, then we realized we may have bitten more than we can chew and things start to deteriorate and eventually die a uncomfortable death. 

Enough of being grim, how about talking about success instead?

How can the project be successful?

  • Sound processes with adequate training
  • Project tied to business or personal goals
  • Senior management (or parents) commitment 
  • Detailed requirements
  • Realistic schedule with adequate buffer
  • Good stakeholder relationships (to iron out issues)
  • Good change managements
  • Empowered project manager (YOU)
  • Skilled and appropriate team 
  • Availability of funding
Wait a minute...it look like there are more points to succeed that it is to fail. You are correct - success requires a lot more work. But at the end, it will be worth it when we enjoy the fruits. Join me in the journey as we embark to achieve success in our project...any project. 

If you are unable to wait (yes, writing this will take some time, on top of my day-job) and wish to explore quickly to how to do the project, do consider getting my book: Simple Project Management: for Noobs to Pros

Thanks....