Why do international projects fail?

As a current or future member or manager of international projects, you should be aware of the following stumbling blocks that may result in project failure. This list does not indicate any order of importance, nor does it claim to be complete. It is partially based on Lientz and Rea (2003):

Treatment of the international project as a standard project: Project owners and managers need to be aware of the particularities of international projects in order to manage them well from the start of the project.

Failure to clarify and communicate goals: Very often not all of the parties and stakeholders will have been involved in the formulation of a common goal, which will limit their commitment to it. Sometimes, the common goal is not well defined due to the complexity of the project. There could be even be contradictory goals.

Failure to take self-interest into account: The various stakeholders involved are likely to have different agendas which need to be taken into account in order to gain full support and commitment for the international project.

Lack of sensitivity to local cultures: Motivation and support of local sites can easily get lost by the imposition of rigid standards or the display of cultural superiority.

Ignoring context: Project managers often insufficiently consider international differences in infrastructure, jurisdiction or other particularities of the international environment.

Customer dissatisfaction: The project outcome does not meet customers expectations due to misunderstandings (mainly language and context) and the lack of a thorough project definition

. Excessive management attention: As some international projects are very important for the survival of an organization, senior executives will tend to micro-manage, thus interfering with plans and de-motivating project managers.

Time overrun: This is may be caused by misunderstandings due to language barriers between locations (national languages) and between functions (professional languages). It may also be caused by bad planning, and by not taking into account that more time may be needed than in a standard project for setting up the right infrastructure, logistics, training, team building, and so forth.

What is your response to this?