Are You a Casualty of This Biggest Software Development Disaster? By Dmitri Khanine At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

When IT projects fail, software design or software process issues like requirements management are usually the first to come up on post-implementation reviews. What almost always overlooked is the human aspect that software developers are bringing into the picture and that alone can turn around virtually any project in no time at all.

"The greatest forces of the Universe don't come down on us like a hurricane but act subtly, quietly changing our lives one day at a time"

I few days ago I bumped into the Chaos Report from Standish Group. When I finished reading it I had mixed feelings - there was no surprise to get an official confirmation of my long time experience - "application software development projects are truly in troubled waters". Report states yet again that 4 out of 5 IT project fail. They either over budget, take longer or get canceled all together - most of us know that. However, what most of us never consider is something by far more frightening and also very revealing.

I thought of thousands top notch developers and architects who secretly hate being in IT even though they passionate about technology. I thought of thousands of great PMs who know deep in their hearts that no matter what they do - chances of having a quality software product delivered on time and on budget are still no better than finding a $100 bill on a street.

How does it feel coming to work every day knowing that whatever you do - more often than not - doesn't matter? You are just a tiny piece of great puzzle that has a mind of its own. You do your very best, work hard, long hours, evenings, weekends, put your family on hold, create a remarkable application you're really proud of ... and the project gets canceled! You write it off to a bad luck and do your best on the next project. Create a great component and six months later it turns out - the entire module will need to be re-done. The client did not really wanted that functionality - the BA wasn't asking them the right questions...

The biggest tragedy of application software development is not the fact that most projects invariably fail. It's that countless most capable, most talented minds are burnt out and frustrated by chaos and hopelessness that surrounds IT projects delivery. And this is what contributes a great deal to project failure rate.

If you're managing software projects and don't have a pretty good grasp of what your developers are saying and what are they not saying at any moment in time - you must educate yourself. You just can't get by without knowing. Don't kid yourself about "trusting your team". I call it "abdicating responsibility" and blaming them when the project goes awry will soon get you less and less mileage on post-implementation reviews.

Do we have to go through five failed projects every time we want one to succeed? Nope. Can we improve project success rates? Absolutely! What all successful project teams do that unsuccessful ones don't?

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