"From that we can define the required business outcomes."

It's this end-to-end process visibility, and recognition of the need to keep going back to that big picture, that will help IT achieve better project outcomes. And if projects aren't run in alignment with business benefits, "we shouldn't be starting."

Offshoring, Simms said, can make things even worse.

"I worry when things go to India [and] they have no idea what company they are working for," he said. "You can have excellent processes for producing bad code."

With one third of projects "consistently" on rework - a mystery to most business people - the business learns to work around the system deficiencies and is now "dumbing down" its requirements.