A project is said to have failed if it deviates more than 30% from its budget or the deadline, if it significantly fails to achieve the goals for which it was designed, has been prematurely cancelled or has not brought the expected benefits. From this perspective, the majority of projects, particularly those in the field of information systems, fail.

Rather than indicating how to avoid making mistakes, our aim is to set out the situations in which others have done so, and show the shape, appearance and volume of the boulders that block the path, so that, in other projects, with a bit of luck and God's help, they can be detected in advance and, by this means, an almost certain crash avoided.