There are no bad projects—just bad matches between contractors and projects. Years of research have led me to conclude that the risk associated with project selection can be accurately measured in advance by taking into account a construction organization’s experience with similar work. I am devising a convenient system for making that measurement and intend to make the system publicly available for free.
Why do so many construction projects fail to produce a profit, despite the fact that the contractors undertaking them were sure they would be profitable? Otherwise, they would not have taken the projects in the first place. For many years, I have been identifying and categorizing the causes of non-performance and recently have expanded the study to include project risk management, control and prevention.