There's no one reason why ERP projects run off the rails. In fact, you can equate a typical project to a three-legged stool, with the customer, vendor and systems integrator each serving as a leg.

Customers have to plan well, budget enough money for training and evolve their usual way of working. Vendors must deliver software that functions properly and matches up well with a customer's business processes. And implementation teams have to set the right expectations, meet project milestones and avoid waste.

If one or more of these "legs" doesn't hold up, things can get ugly.

Michael Krigsman, president and CEO of Asuret, a consulting firm focused on helping companies improve the outcome of IT projects, prefers to use the more ominous metaphor of "the Devil's Triangle" to describe the dynamics in play.

And he sees no immediate end to troubled projects. "There is no magic bullet. The magic bullet is to change human nature, to make us wise and all-seeing," he said.