[adamdrake]

One thing I haven't seen in the comments, but have observed personally is the accounting implications and reasoning for these failed SAP projects.

Sometimes the project cannot be stopped immediately during development, even if it is already known that the project is a failure. The reason is that some companies capitalize the cost of the development over many years, and if they were to cancel the project they would have to book the entire amount as an expense in a given year, instead of depreciating it over multiple years.

I know of one company that worked on an SAP implementation for about 5 years, when it was only supposed to take 6 months or so, and the reason was that if they stopped the project they would have to book the entire cost as an expense in the current financial year. The exec team, who had financially-based bonuses, weren't keen on that.

Instead the project was put together to the extent possible so that it could be declared usable, and then promptly shelved. However, it was "completed" so in theory the sunk cost could have been spread out over multiple years.

Sometimes, you just have to follow the money.