Reasons for Digital Transformation Project Failures Based on U.S. Project Managers’ Lived Experiences

Digital transformation projects have a failure rate of 66% to 84%, costing U.S. companies billions of dollars each year. Organizational leaders need to understand the implications of these costly failures, leading to substantial financial losses. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive phenomenological study was to explore the reasons for digital transformation project failures from the perspective of the lived experiences of U.S. project managers. The conceptual framework consisted of Lewin’s 3-stage change management model, Correani et al.’s digital transformation implementation model, Herzberg’s 2-factor theory of motivation-hygiene, and von Bertalanffy’s systems theory. The participants were 13 U.S. active, certified professional project managers with at least 5 years of experience, who had completed two or more U.S. digital transformation projects and had led at least one failed digital transformation project. The data were collected using semistructured interviews. Eight themes emerged from the thematic analysis: (a) lack of preparation, (b) ineffective change management, (c) unrealistic business expectations, (d) poor organizational collaboration, (e) lack of transparency early on, (f) underestimating timeframe and requirements, (g) poor communication between stakeholders, and (h) lack of user experience. Project managers can use these identified strategies to improve their management of digital transformation projects and align goals with technology initiatives. Implications for positive social change include the potential for organizational leaders to reduce project failure rates, reinvesting the billions of dollars saved to improve their product quality, and investing in the local communities.