DEATH MARCH PROJECTS

Death March Projects and Avoidance Measures

Death March Projects and Avoidance Measures

Introduction

Reports of organizations such as the Standish Group, as well as statistical data such respected experts as Capers Jones, Howard Rubin, Paul Strassman, and Larry Putnam, suggest that the average duration of the project exceeds planned for 6-12 months and the cost exceeds the budget by 50-100%. Particular situation depends on the project size and other factors, but in any case, the harsh reality forces the employee to assume that the conditions of the employee's project will entail some degree doomed to failure, and this is reflected in the behavior of a project manager and his technical staff. If the project from the outset a high degree of risk, it certainly will entail a lot of overtime, lost weekends, and probably a lot of emotional and physical stress to the very end. Even if the project starts in a reasonable and calm atmosphere, it is still likely that, as a continuation of it will degenerate into hopeless - either the original plan or budget will be extremely unrealistic, whether users will be many new requirements, which are not considered in the original plan and budget.

Discussion

These issues are equally relevant for both the manager responsible for the project and for technical specialists, calloused hands that the system is designed, programmed, tested and documented, and all chapters of the book is addressed equally to both groups (Ratzburg, N.D.). A few words about managers and technicians, some of the comments that the employee find in the following chapters suggest that managers are "evil", and the participants of the project team - innocent, oppressed victims. Obviously, this situation is not mandatory for all projects and all companies, although the existence of bad projects is usually the result of conscious management decisions.

If at this moment the employee decide that the employee do not have time to read through the book, I can only say one word that can recoup the time spent reading the preface: priority (triage). If the employee is in a hopeless project, will almost certainly be insufficient resources to implement all the functionality and capabilities that are required by the end user, under the approved plan and budget. One way or another will have to decide what features should be implemented in the first place, and what the employee can donate. Indeed, some of the minor features are not implemented ever, so its best - is to give them to die peacefully with his own death (Yourdon, 2004). Other features are fairly important, but also relatively easily implemented, for example, using the supplied class libraries, or the employee use CASE-tools. In the language of physicians, these opportunities will survive on their own. Success or failure of a hopeless project often depends on the ability of the project team identify critical functions and features that can not be implemented without investing significant resources and energy.

For many seasoned veterans of these issues - pure ...