I’ve been researching why IT roles fail (or at least struggle mightily and often futily). The roles that come up most often are the ones that are not directly building or maintaining systems. These include architecture, planning, vendor management, relationship management, PMO, and security. As I’ve collected this information, there are themes emerging to explain why they fail. These include:

• Wrong skills. An architect was told to define the standards for data tools but lacked the skills to convince others they should care.
• Inadequate capacity. Relationship managers at a midsized firm were sold as strategic partners to business leaders but were also required to run large apps groups that had recently suffered layoffs. They just didn’t have time for the strategic bit.
• Lack of support. The leader of vendor management was supposed to provide advice and oversight on which vendors were selected, but the CIO did little to rein in other managers who previously had bought what they wanted from who they wanted.

Have you seen any of these roles fail to meet expectations? What has it looked like and why has it happened?