By Robert L. Glass
ISBN: 0-13-673443-X
First published 1998
251 pages
Publisher: Prentice Hall / http://www.phptr.com
Cover design: Anthony Gemmellaro
3.5/5 Stars
An excellent snapshot of software development as it existed in those long-ago days of 1995.
Glass has gathered some of the best anecdotes and case studies available for us to study and recount to our peers, colleagues and mentees.
There are also some great quotes, for example, this from Bill Gates :
“Frankly, one of the challenges facing Microsoft is that many of its employees have not suffered much failure yet. Quite a few have never been involved with a project that didn’t succeed. As a result, success may be taken for granted, which is dangerous…When you’re failing, you’re forced to be creative, to dig deep and think hard, night and day. Every company needs people who have been through that.” – USAir Magazine July 1995
He takes a broad look at failed projects, for example, Denver International Airport baggage handling system, the IRS, the Florida Welfare system as well as many private corporation examples.
Part of the reason is the nature of software itself. “It is equal parts psychological and technical. Software is both a source of amusement and engineering achievement. It is easy to change, to the point of whimsy, and it allows us to do things heretofore unthinkable [] It is contradictory and miraculous.” he writes.
Glass references a seminal paper from KPMG, “Runaway projects – Causes and Effects”, Software World, Vol.26, No.3, 1995 by Andy Cole. The paper shows the respondents highest rated causes of failure:
- Project Objectives not fully specified
- Bad planning and estimating
- Technology new to the organisation
- Inadequate/No project management
- Insufficient senior staff on the team
- Poor performance by Suppliers
At a glance, how many of these are still relevant today, after 2 decades of project management development and growth and expertise?
“The strongest theme,” Glass writes, “running across both the in-progress remedies and the long-term remedies, is better project management. ” He justifies this by saying “there seems to be a very strong belief among these companies that project management is, and will continue to be, the prime cause of software runaways until something is done about it.”
My favourite quote though, is Hofstadter’s Law;
“Software development always takes longer than you think, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law” .
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