No light at the end of the tunnel…

This morning’s news stopped me in my tracks somewhat.

The Chiltern railway line, one of the mail commuter routes into and out of London, had been blocked by a collapsed tunnel in the town of Gerrards Cross. The tunnel in question had been recently built as part of the ongoing development of a new Tesco supermarket in the town.

I live a few miles down the road, and know this had been a hugely controversial project right from the start. In order to find the space to build the store, Tesco’s had struck on the innovative notion of building above the railway line in the town centre. Since the railway line went through the town in a deep cutting, this involved encasing the line in a concrete ring segments and back-filling the earth to create the site.

It looks like someone got the sums wrong. A large part of what would have become the car park had collapsed into the tunnel below. Fortunately there were no injuries.

When projects go wrong like this the effects tend to be much wider than failure of the project in its own right. Tesco (or more likely its contractors) will feel the pain of the delays, or possible abandonment of the project, but the implications are more extensive. Will it still have the appetite for similarly adventurous projects in the future? Will local authorities still be inclined to sanction them even if it has? How does this impact the companies plans to increase store numbers? What’s the damage to its reputation? And, what’s the cost of the deepening resentment from local residents and commuters?

In the same way, when CRM projects derail, the impact isn’t just the direct costs, there are important indirect ones to consider as well. Staff lose faith in IT’s ability to deliver. They lose faith in their management’s ability to deliver. Morale diminishes. And when the next big project comes along, lowered expectations, mean that staff are less likely to make the commitment required to make the project a success.

Whatever the project type – ground-breaking (in more ways that one) construction projects, or CRM deployments – when the stakes are high, it’s wise to plan very carefully.

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