Projects fail because of bad decisions, not bad communication

The agile arena is vibrating more than ever these days, and one of the leitmotifs that seems to capture the imagination of the audience is the crusade for effective communication. The background idea is that miscommunication has led many projects to failure, and thus, we need to fix this predicament.

But, here is the thing. Projects do not fail due to bad communication. They fail because of bad decisions. Bad decisions stem from incorrect assessments. Assessments, in turn, might indeed depend on the success of communication, but communication is only one of the influencing factors.

It is important to distinguish the cause of an effect to know how to fix your particular predicament.