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01 Introduction

The document discusses common reasons for software project failures, including premature coding, unrealistic workload expectations, late defect discovery, poor programming habits, and ineffective quality testing. It also provides strategies for ensuring project success, such as fostering transparency, trusting team expertise, integrating quality from the start, avoiding artificial hierarchies, and adhering to good engineering practices. Emphasizing the importance of thorough planning and early defect detection, the document highlights that cutting essential tasks can lead to increased costs and reduced quality.

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nourhanibrahim2004
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© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
2 views

01 Introduction

The document discusses common reasons for software project failures, including premature coding, unrealistic workload expectations, late defect discovery, poor programming habits, and ineffective quality testing. It also provides strategies for ensuring project success, such as fostering transparency, trusting team expertise, integrating quality from the start, avoiding artificial hierarchies, and adhering to good engineering practices. Emphasizing the importance of thorough planning and early defect detection, the document highlights that cutting essential tasks can lead to increased costs and reduced quality.

Uploaded by

nourhanibrahim2004
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Applied Software Project Management

Introduction

http://www.stellman-greene.com 1
Andrew Stellman & Jennifer Greene
Applied Software Project Management

Why do software projects fail?


 People begin programming before they
understand the problem
 Everyone likes to feel that they’re making progress
 When the team starts to code as soon as the project
begins, they see immediate gains
 When problems become more complex (as they always
do!), the work gets bogged down
 In the best case, a team that begins programming too
soon will end up writing good software that solves the
wrong problem

http://www.stellman-greene.com 2
Andrew Stellman & Jennifer Greene
Applied Software Project Management

Why do software projects fail?


 The team has an unrealistic idea about how much
work is involved.
 From far away, most complex problems seem simple to
solve
 Teams can commit to impossible deadlines by being
overly optimistic and not thinking through the work
 Few people realize the deadline is optimistic until it’s
blown

http://www.stellman-greene.com 3
Andrew Stellman & Jennifer Greene
Applied Software Project Management

Why do software projects fail?


 Defects are injected early but discovered late.
 Projects can address the wrong needs
 Requirements can specify incorrect behavior
 Design, architecture and code can be technically flawed
 Test plans can miss functionality
 The later these problems are found, the more likely they
are to cause the project to fail

http://www.stellman-greene.com 4
Andrew Stellman & Jennifer Greene
Applied Software Project Management

Why do software projects fail?


 Programmers have poor habits – and they don’t
feel accountable for their work.
 Programmers don’t have good control of their source
code
 Code written by one person is often difficult for another
person to understand
 Programmers don’t test their code, which makes
diagnosing and fixing bugs more expensive
 The team does not have a good sense of the overall
health of the project.

http://www.stellman-greene.com 5
Andrew Stellman & Jennifer Greene
Applied Software Project Management

Why do software projects fail?


 Managers try to test quality into the software.
 Everyone assumes that the testers will catch all of the
defects that were injected throughout the project.
 When testers look for defects, managers tell them they
are wasting time.
 When testers find defects, programmers are
antagonized because they feel that they are being
personally criticized.
 When testers miss defects, everyone blames them for
not being perfect.

http://www.stellman-greene.com 6
Andrew Stellman & Jennifer Greene
Applied Software Project Management

How can we make sure that our projects


succeed?
 Make sure all decisions are based on openly shared
information
 It’s important to create a culture of transparency, where
everyone who needs information knows where to find it
and is comfortable looking at it.
 All project documents, schedules, estimates, plans and
other work products should be shared with the entire
team, managers, stakeholders, users and anyone else in
the organization who wants them.
 Major decisions that are made about the project should
be well-supported and explained.

http://www.stellman-greene.com 7
Andrew Stellman & Jennifer Greene
Applied Software Project Management

How can we make sure that our projects


succeed?
 Don’t second-guess your team members’ expertise
 Managers need to trust team members.
 Just because a manager has responsibility for a project’s
success, it doesn’t mean that he’s more qualified to make
decisions than the team members.
 If you don’t have a good reason to veto an idea, don’t.

http://www.stellman-greene.com 8
Andrew Stellman & Jennifer Greene
Applied Software Project Management

How can we make sure that our projects


succeed?
 Introduce software quality from the very beginning of
the project
 Review everything, test everything.
 Use reviews to find defects – but don’t expect the review
to be perfect.
 Use reviews to gain a real commitment from the team.
 It’s always faster in the long run to hold a review than it
is to skip it.

http://www.stellman-greene.com 9
Andrew Stellman & Jennifer Greene
Applied Software Project Management

How can we make sure that our projects


succeed?
 Don’t impose an artificial hierarchy on the project
team
 All software engineers were created equal.
 A manager should not assume that programming is
more difficult or technical than design, testing or
requirements engineering.
 Managers should definitely not assume that the
programmer is always right, or the tester is always
raising false alarms.

http://www.stellman-greene.com 10
Andrew Stellman & Jennifer Greene
Applied Software Project Management

How can we make sure that our projects


succeed?
 Remember that the fastest way through the project
is to use good engineering practices
 Managers and teams often want to cut important tasks –
especially estimation, reviews, requirements gathering
and testing.
 If it were faster to build the software without these
practices, we would never use them.
 Every one of these practices is about saving time and
increasing quality by planning well and finding defects
early. Cutting them out will cost time and reduce quality.

http://www.stellman-greene.com 11
Andrew Stellman & Jennifer Greene

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