Project Failure Files: Not Focusing on Quality

In Episode 64 of the Project Failure Files weekly webcast, our focus was “Trusting Luck Over Testing,” in which Sharon and I dig into the costly mistake of cutting testing to increase speed of delivery. We try to reframe testing as part of continuous risk management rather than a single phase to cut when timelines and budgets tighten. Whether it’s a migration, a marketing rollout, or an AI-driven intranet, the point is the same: define risks early, monitor them throughout, and decide in advance how you’ll mitigate or respond if they materialize.

We unpack the cultural fallout when teams skip risk analysis: stress spikes, rework explodes, deadlines slide, and credibility erodes. “Hero culture” takes over, corners get normalized, and quality becomes inconsistent. The fix is boring (in a good way): a visible definition of done, incremental checks at each milestone, dashboards that reveal drift, and permission to pull the andon cord when something looks off.

Practical advice dominates: bake testing into your methodology, empower teams to estimate and flag risk, document decisions and metrics, and use partial deliveries/MVPs to learn before you scale. Make trade-offs transparent (“yes—if we add time/people/budget”), establish feedback loops for spotting new risks, and celebrate when the team finds and fixes issues early.

Enjoy the episode!

Be sure to tune in next Monday, November 10th at 9am Pacific for a program update on our weekly series. Hope you can join us on our NEW YouTube channel (please subscribe!), or find us on LinkedIn.