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Why Do So Many Software Projects Fail?

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Phil Comelio
Phil Comelio

This is a presentation that I have given a couple of times as part of the Advanced Software Development course at Bristol University.

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Why do so many software projects fail? Phil Comelio 25 th November 2008  Comelio Consulting Ltd. 2008
About Phil Comelio ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Introduction ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
The Statistic of Failure: The Standish Report
What is “Success”? Your thoughts….
According to Standish ,[object Object],[object Object]
What is “Challenged”? Your thoughts….
Some Ideas of Challenged ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
According to Standish ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
What is “Failure”? Your thoughts….
Some ideas of Failure ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Failure
According to Standish ,[object Object],[object Object]
According to Phil Comelio ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
The Statistics of Failure
The Worst Example ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
So why is software project failure so common?
Nobody Wanted It In The First Place.
You Can't Get There From Here ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
The Business Case ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Nobody Really Cares About the Project ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Nobody Knew What It Was Supposed To Do.
What are we supposed to be delivering anyway?
What are we supposed to be delivering anyway? ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Types of Requirements ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
What are we supposed to be delivering anyway? ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
It Used Bleeding Edge Technology
Chasing the Next Shiny Thing ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Chasing the Next Shiny Thing ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
It Wasn’t Good Enough.
What Is Software Quality? Your thoughts……
Quality ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
The Cost of Quality ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
What is quality?
Defect Count Acceptance Criteria COTS component with 20 lines of bespoke code Bespoke component with 100k+ lines of bespoke code High Medium Low 0 10 20 0 10 20
Some Measures of Quality ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Did the customer get what was asked for?
What is Quality?
Nobody Knew How To Build It.
But that’s how we’ve always done things around here! ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
But that’s how we’ve always done things around here! ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Who’s going to pay for all this? ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Nobody Knew How To Manage It.
Plans and Reality ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Plans and Reality ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Estimates for planning ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Risks & Issues ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
The Ostrich Approach to Risk Management ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
The Knee-Jerk Approach to Issue Management
Issues ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Beware the Creeping Feature Creature ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Things Change
What Do Uncontrolled Changes Do To a Project? ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
So why allow change at all? ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Nobody Could Stop It.
The Fear of Failure ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
The Fear of Success ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Why do so many software projects fail? ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
The Standish Conclusions ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
The Standish Conclusions ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Further Reading ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Any Questions?

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Why Do So Many Software Projects Fail?