By many accounts, enterprise software development projects fail between 30 and 40% of the time and over 60% of projects don't meet their stated goals. These projects fall victim to shifting requirements, lack of user communication and unweildy and unmaintainable code bases. This is a staggering number of projects representing billions in wasted cash.
Enterprise software development projects fall victim to three major issues - shifting requirements, lack of communication and poor execution resulting in unweildy and unmaintainable software. Fixing these issues is not simple, but the key to success is having disciplined technical project management that focuses on continually shipping working software.
Shifting Requirements are a reality in every business setting and cannot be avoided. What can be avoided is putting the development team into a spin cycle of requirement change. Disciplined project management must be employed to create time-limited "islands of calm" in which development teams have no changes to their requirements for that period of time. Outside of these time slots, the requirements can change significantly, but it is up to the project management to isolate the development team and ensure that they can accomplish useful work in an unchanging environment for a period of time.
Enterprise software development projects fall victim to three major issues - shifting requirements, lack of communication and poor execution resulting in unweildy and unmaintainable software. Fixing these issues is not simple, but the key to success is having disciplined technical project management that focuses on continually shipping working software.
Shifting Requirements are a reality in every business setting and cannot be avoided. What can be avoided is putting the development team into a spin cycle of requirement change. Disciplined project management must be employed to create time-limited "islands of calm" in which development teams have no changes to their requirements for that period of time. Outside of these time slots, the requirements can change significantly, but it is up to the project management to isolate the development team and ensure that they can accomplish useful work in an unchanging environment for a period of time.
