Detailed Software Project Failure

What are the most common causes of software project failure?

I’m a Project Owner of internal project in software development company Netguru.All the time we are experiencing problems and distractions which are slowing us down. From time to time we have to go back to our document with goals for given quarter to review our current work and check if it’s leading us in a good direction.Here is the pretty good list of biggest issues you may encounter (and we do) during development: https://www.netguru.co/blog/not-run-projectPersonally, I think these have the most effect:Meetings - instead of multiple, long talks, we keep them very short and brief. Daily standups and weekly 30 minute meetings, sometimes longer if we got some more complicated things to solve. Key is to describe everything very clearly on paper, so you don’t have to talk about on and on during countless talks.Time wasted on irrelevancies - did you ever focus on some non important task really, working on it for unnecessary amount of time? Yeah, avoid that. If you feel you’re getting lost, ask yourself a question - is this what we really need to do right now? And we usually close the ticket as “Won’t do” or push it back to backlog :)Reopening already closed issues - do not put endless subtasks to your epics. You’re gonna have a bad time. And even worse time estimations.Rest is here, don’t miss it.

Why is world's biggest Agile software project close to failure?

Because, from what I have heard, it's not being run as an actual agile project in any meaningful way (I can't mention names since they would like to keep their jobs - but from talking to a few folk who are involved it's an agile project in name only).The reasons for failure are the normal reasons for failure of large governmental projects. Unreasonable goals, unreasonable deadlines, etc.Also - remember - this project is not solely, or even primarily, a software project. This is changing the way the entire UK manages benefit payments. This is going to involve retraining thousands of staff, educating millions of people on the new scheme, producing online and offline training and education material, etc.UC isn't a software project. It's a political platform and talking point. One that many people said was completely unfeasible in the timescale from the point it was initially announced.

Have you ever failed to deliver on a project as a software programmer at your place of work?

Yes, but this is rarely the developed fault. I've seen statistic that show something like 80% of software projects are considered failures due to either not meeting time frame, budget, or requirements. Often in projects that I was involved with the requirements were not allowed to be locked down. This obviously creates all kinds of problems. At the same time, schedules were not flexible, project managers would new features and then say the date cannot move. I was accused of sabotaging projects when I warned the date could not be made if they added stuff. We didn't make the date, we got fined, I got dinged on my evaluation (no raise). I pointed out that I told them the consequences. This happened two years in a row and I finally quit. The upside was my boss got fired a month later for his poor treatment of me and another worker and most specifically letting me walk out the door.

What is the biggest completely failed software project?

Interesting Question! If you would want answers for biggest failure you will have to search at a place which produces biggest hits. Yes its Microsoft and the software project which I am referring to is Windows Vista. Vista was one big failure which no one could ever imagine at that period from a gaint like Microsoft. While it did make things worse for microsoft, Microsoft didn't loose much of user base(no choice!) and XP had an extended stay.

What are some guaranteed ways to make a software project fail?

Good question, I am providing these certified suggestions. I have tried all these approaches (some more than once) and I can certify these are really bad idea’sLack of reasonable task break down into manageable schedule bits. When the development department says that you don’t need updates on this 3 month task, believe them and don’t check on the statusDon’t have weekly project meetings, the just waste developer time! The development manager will let you know if they are off track!Swap programing languages in mid project. (always a classic)Don’t have change management. Encourage the sponsor to talk and direct the programming staff. The sooner you do this one, the more misery you will have. I recommend you start early in the project.Don’t do project status reports. The sponsors love spending money without knowing what they are buying.Create untestable requirements. You know, add terms likefasterbetterexceeds customer expectationNext GenerationcheaperAvoid parallel task, the longer the schedule the better!Don’t do code reviews and Unit testing, after all those items are for newbie programers.Keep the project vision a secret, afterall all programmers love to be kept in the darkStaff with Junior staff and don’t give them current tools to do their jobs.Need more? got more? comment belowBest of luck!