The Nature of Software Development Projects (CH2)

Slide 1

The Nature of Software Development Projects

 Jim Tomayko     Orit Hazzan 

Slide 2

Failure & Success of Software Projects

Is the following project a success or a failure?

• Software for a medical equipment

• 64% of the developers had more than 5 years of experience in software development

• Time to market: 193% (of what was expected)

• Over budget: 200%

• After delivery: The project works as was expected

Slide 3

Failure & Success of Software Projects

Is the following project a success or a failure?

• Software for airlines management

• 64% of the developers had more than 5 years of software development experience

• Delivered on-time

• No over budget

• After delivery: The project did not work as was expected

Slide 4

Failure & Success of Software Projects

Discussion:

• Define a successful software project.

• Define a failed software project.

• How can the success of a software project be measured?

Slide 5

Why Do Software Projects Fail?

• Problems in teamwork?

• Technical problems?

• Other problems?

Slide 6

Why Do Software Projects Fail?

Schedule

• Stressed time table

• No defined deadlines

• Attempts to overcome this stress

• Shortcuts (skip tests)

• Long hours

Redundant extensions

• tendency to add features (beyond requirements);

• these extensions are not considered when the project time table is set

Slide 7

Why Do Software Projects Fail?

Teamwork communication and cooperation

• Cooperation among team members

  • Job security; information hiding; complex code

• Problems in leadership

• Low quality

  • Sloppy understanding of the task & the requirements

Slide 8

Why Do Software Projects Fail?

Fairley, R. E. and Willshire N. J. (2003). Why the Vasa sank: 10 problems and some antidotes for software projects, IEEE Software, pp. 18 “25.

[Lecturer can ask students to review these problems]

The course focuses on different ways for solving some of these problems.