2. Few reasons for success of
software project
Clearly Define Success
As previously mentioned, there are many way to define project and product
success. A successful project may not necessarily be a successful product, and
not all projects generate new products. It is important to have specific ways of
measuring the success and failure of a project.
Have Clear Objectives and Requirements
When you’re working on a project, you should have detailed project
specifications and established project management methodologies (i.e. Agile,
Waterfall etc.). The project should be properly scoped and broken down. This
way, a more realistic estimation can be made. We would recommend involving
developers to help determine the project timeline.
3. Involve End Users
Whether you’re implementing a software for internal users or external users, it is
important to understand what the users need. Often, the development team is so
far removed from the users and so concentrated on hitting their targets that they
fail to communicate with their users. To ensure that end users’ needs are
prioritized, make sure to begin the project with a strong user requirements
specification and ask for user's feedback along the way. Encourage project team
members to communicate directly with end users.
Hire Skilled Developers
A developer’s programming skill directly influences the success of his/her
projects. Skilled developers are often more experienced, can create higher quality
software, and be more efficient.
Know What You Want
Though not necessarily always the case, clients with more experience working
with freelance platforms and freelance developers are more likely to have
successful projects. If you’re a non-technical founder, here are some practical
advices regarding how to build your tech team.
4. Use Effective Project Management Methodologies
Make sure you have reliable project managers and project management
methodologies. For example, Agile methodologies stress the importance of
developing software in iteration — each software version is tested and reviewed
by stakeholders. Furthermore, make sure you always give yourself some leeway
in terms of time. If a certain part of the project is set to be completed within 10
days, give developers 7 to 8 days to complete the task. As previously mentioned,
if you’re hiring freelance developers, make sure the platform you use offers
project management support!
Break Your Project Up
Depending on what you’re aiming to achieve, your projects’ sizes will vary. It is
important to break larger projects into smaller, more manageable chunks.
When projects are broken down into smaller chunks, the communication is
tighter and problems are more easily dealt with. Therefore, having shorter
project milestones will help projects succeed.
5. Strengthen Your Relationship with Developers
Having a strong relationship with freelance developers is directly correlated
with having more successful projects. Platforms that are more involved in the
process of matching clients with freelancers and project management
significantly increases the success rate.
Help Developers Understand Your Company’s Culture
Related to the previous point, make sure the developer you hire understands
your language and company culture to avoid any misunderstandings that may
arise.
Review Finished (& Failed) Projects
An often overlooked part of project development is project review. Whether you
implemented an ideal project, imperfect project, or a failed project, it is
important to review what went well and what went wrong with the project.
6. Few reasons for software project to
fail
Miscalculated Time and Budget Frames
Clients are always eager to have their projects rolled-out on time and even
before the stipulated time at throw away prices. In most cases, this keenness of
the client leads to developers agreeing to a rather shorter or unrealistic and
non-negotiable time frame for the project delivery at meager rates. As a result,
programmers are not able to deliver the project on time.
Lack of Communication
Another key aspect is the failure to set up effective communication channels
and participative environment. Due to this, ideas or process flows get adrift
and leads to lack of previews and interactions between the active project
promoters and developers. At times standardized assumptions may lead to
misunderstanding as standards may vary leading to business software failure.
7. Unfocused Executive Sponsors
Inactive leadership through non-effective executive sponsors is why IT projects
fail. They are the people who keep the process ignited and are primarily
responsible for the success or failure of the project. So in most cases lack of time
spent by these executive sponsors or the complete lack of it, leads to project
failures.
Chasing Technology
Some managers are lured into the benefits of the latest available technology,
and try to use it for their ongoing projects. This forces them to gravitate from
the planning done at the design stage. This leads to the failure of the whole
system, change in objectives, or failing to complete the project on time.
Lack of Periodic Assessment
Lack of client induced and developer mandated assessments, and failure in
smartly establishing milestone points leads to improper assessments, which
leads to irreparable or catastrophic failures.
8. Was it Needed At All?
This is rather a surprising reason which attributes to a software project failure,
primarily in low-consensus and non-evaluative organizations that lack in
leadership. It is well known that some of the projects can be really resource
intensive and can defeat the whole purpose of investing time and money in
developing the software.
No End-user Involvement
If the user's point of view is not taken into consideration while developing the
IT project you are definitely calling in for trouble. So failure to find and engage
the right users to participate in the software development process is extremely
disastrous.
Failing to See the Bigger Picture
This can be one of the major reasons for the failure of a software project. The
lack of foresight or stakeholders' confidence can be a huge reason for the failure
in seeing the bigger picture in developing the software. In hindsight this also
tells us the importance of reviewing failure of a software project before starting
a new project.
9. Development Downtime
Development downtime is one of the primary contributors to challenged or
failed projects. Major factors that lead to software project failure are -
application bug or error, environmental factors, infrastructure or software
failure, virus, hacker, network/hardware failure and operator error.
Lack of Quality Testing
In most projects, the importance given to coding isn't given to testing.
Honestly speaking testing calls for a greater integrity and role in the entire
software development lifecycle. Casual testing, testing under non-real time
environments contribute to testing failures. Bolder companies test their projects
under live production environments.
