I recently attended an online conference sponsored by the IT Metrics & Productivity Institute that focused on improving software development by leveraging best practices and software process improvement theory.
One of the speakers, Bob Charette, a risk management consultant, gave an excellent presentation entitled "Why do Software Projects Fail?”
In his presentation, Charette cites the most common factors of failure including:
These factors should not be new or surprising to software industry veterans. What I personally found new and interesting was his discussion on why software project fail.
He claims that projects fail for one very simple reason. They become unaffordable.
Why is that? Because failed projects become overwhelmed by unplanned work and rework.
Why is that? Because of a myriad of known, but poorly managed risks that encourage people to take unnecessary gambles.
The end result is that we become surprised when risks (many of which were previously identified) actually occur. Worse, when we do realize that something is amiss, we are slow to react (i.e. we hesitate to take action and when we do, it's often too late).
Ultimately, he claims that a software projects fails because the organization fails (as it becomes a "suite of bad decisions").
What can an organization do? He suggests that organizations can succeed via better risk management which subsequently facilitates better decision making. He emphasizes that "managing risk does not deal with future decisions, but the future of present decisions".
Definitely food for thought.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Labels:
Project Management
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