PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

   

If you are in the business of writing books, then one of the things you spend a lot of your time doing is in looking for the opening line. There are many reasons for this, but perhaps the most selfish one is that, unless you are very prolific, you don't get to do opening lines very often. In my own case it is three years since I did my last one, and goodness knows how long it will be before I get to do another.

Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister (1987) found their first line in the classic, People Ware: "Somewhere today," their memorable opening runs, "a project is failing." And today, nine years later, despite everyone's best efforts, projects are still failing. The French General Ducrot put things more colorfully after the defeat of the French forces at the Battle of Sedan, when he said " Nous sommes dans un pot de chambre, et nous y serons emmerd s. " And today, even as I write or as you read, somebody is waking up to find that they are indeed in a pot de chambre , and that they are very much emmerd s.

It doesn't have to be like this. That was the message of the first edition of this book, and it is more than ever the message now.

I had thought that I was finished with How To Run Successful Projects , that there was not much more that needed to be said, but the intervening years have proved me wrong.

By far the most significant thing that I have learned is that what I knew in 1992 to be true, others can now independently confirm: that is, that the Ten Step Method is the solution to the software industry's biggest problem “ that of software projects not coming in on time, within budget or delivering what was required. I knew this three years ago when I wrote the first edition, but I didn't think the world was quite ready for a claim like that then. Now, I can come out of the closet and make the claim unashamedly, and secure in the knowledge that it can be backed up by people who have actually used it. Of course, in a sense, this should come as no surprise because of the origin of the Ten Steps. Since the Ten Steps were derived from understanding why some projects succeed and others fall, the fact that they work for software projects merely confirms what I have thought for years, that “ despite all the propaganda to the contrary “ software projects are no different from any other kinds of projects.

I have learned something else. The Ten Steps don't just guarantee a successful project, they are also the minimum that has to be done for a successful project. Mathematicians would call the Ten Steps a necessary and sufficient condition for a successful project “ you have to do what the Ten Steps require, but having done this much, that is all you have to do. To put it differently, the Ten Steps tell you when you have done enough project management. Your days of waking in the middle of the night and wondering if you are doing enough are over once you start applying the Ten Steps.

This property of the Ten Steps opens up the wonderful vista that we have called the Lazy Project Manager. Lazy is normally used as a derogatory term , but here we mean it to be highly complimentary . The Lazy Project Manager does the minimum possible and always has a successful outcome “ to the bewilderment of her colleagues.

In detail, the main changes you will find in this edition of the book are the following:

  • Since the Ten Steps guarantee success, we have tried to make it as easy as possible for you to begin applying them. Many of the things we provide here are things that our clients have asked us for over the last three years.

  • The Probability of Success Indicator (PSI), rather than being a bit of a footnote, is now integral to the Ten Steps. Each step's contribution to the PSI is explained more fully. We can do this because we have managed to apply the PSI to several thousand projects since the first edition of the book appeared.

  • Software estimation has been simplified and made much more usable. Looking back on it I realize that I was confused about software estimation. I still saw it as something which was different somehow from estimating in other disciplines. Now, I realize it is not at all.

  • Time management has been integrated with the Ten Steps. This is because we now want you to be not just a successful project manager but a Lazy Successful Project Manager.

   


How To Run Successful Projects III. The Silver Bullet
How to Run Successful Projects III: The Silver Bullet (3rd Edition)
ISBN: 0201748061
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2001
Pages: 176

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