ABSTRACT
The widespread belief that project management has 'failed' is sustained by the evidence of dubious projects. If a project purports to be delivering an elephant but is in fact delivering a hippopotamus, then it is fraudulent. The people who create frauds and dubious projects are doing exactly what is expected of them. The picture so far has been painted in rather black and white terms, as though projects must be in one camp or the other: honest and open or fraudulent with undeclared objectives. Participants in fraudulent projects have good reason not to declare the actual version of the project. Potential projects cannot simply be divided into right or wrong, sound or dubious. The real project world is painted in varied shades of grey. The conventional approaches to the control of projects i.e. life-cycle management and stage-gates, are deeply problematic.
