Chapter 7. Before the Project

Do you ever get the feeling that your project is doomed, even before it starts? Sometimes it might be, unless you establish some basic ground rules first. Otherwise, you might as well suggest that it be shut down now, and save the sponsor some money.

At the very beginning of a project, you'll need to determine the requirements. Simply listening to users is not enough: read The Requirements Pit to find out more.

Conventional wisdom and constraint management are the topics of Solving Impossible Puzzles. Whether you are performing requirements, analysis, coding, or testing, difficult problems will crop up. Most of the time, they won't be as difficult as they first appear to be.

When you think you've got the problems solved , you may still not feel comfortable with jumping in and starting. Is it simple procrastination, or is it something more? Not Until You're Ready offers advice on when it may be prudent to listen to that cautionary voice inside your head.

Starting too soon is one problem, but waiting too long may be even worse . In The Specification Trap, we'll discuss the advantages of specification by example.

Finally, we'll look at some of the pitfalls of formal development processes and methodologies in Circles and Arrows. No matter how well thought out it is, and regardless of which "best practices" it includes, no method can replace thinking.

With these critical issues sorted out before the project gets under way, you can be better positioned to avoid "analysis paralysis" and actually begin your successful project.