**2. What is project failure?**

For the purposes of consistency this research has adopted the widely understood term for project failure as being projects that fail to be delivered on time, on budget and with the required scope and functionality.

Previous research has identified high-level issues, in particular lack of senior management involvement [8] or a lack of clearly identified deliverables. The 'problem of poor requirements engineering and management has been repeatedly and widely discussed and documented for at least 10 years as a contributing cause of project failures' [9] yet the continuous research and new technologies on these topics 'has not resulted in a practical solution to the problem'.

IT project failures 'have been extensively documented and studied' but with little progress actually being achieved makes 'Cobb's paradox as topical today as it was a decade ago' [10].

It is clear that despite decades of industry experience and practice, decades of research, consulting and advice, there exists little consensus as to why projects continue to run over-budget, over-time and deliver less than what was required. Cobb has argued that 'we know why projects fail' suggesting that there is a failure to transfer that knowledge into practice. The US military has questioned that premise and intimidated that it is possible that no paradox exists at all, but in fact we simply have not yet identified why IT projects continue to fail [11].
