How to prevent from failures of Software Projects?

Software, in today's time, has A lot to do with a business's success. It plays an important role in business development and presents an image that is unmatchable. More than 50 years after the invention of project methodologies, more than half of all IT projects fail due to a lack of time, resources, funds, software failures, etc..

What Is Software Project Failure

 A failure that occurs when a piece of software or hardware does not perform as expected by the user. The user may need to identify the severity of the failures such as catastrophic, critical, major or minor, depending on their impact on the systems they are operating on.

Reasons for Software Project Failure

1. Poor Project Management
2. Unrealistic or unarticulated project goals
3. Inaccurate estimates of needed resources
4. Badly defined system requirements
5. Poor reporting of the project's status
6. Poor communication among customers, developers, and users
7. Use of immature technology
8. Inability to handle the project's complexity
9. Unmanaged risks
10. Commercial pressures

Let's See Some Ways to Make Your Software Project  Success

 1. Ensure that your Vendor Comprehends the Information Correctly

We have noticed that many software projects fail or get challenged due to vendor / manager's incompetence. To make your software project a success, it is imperative that your vendor or project head collects adequate information from the client.

1. Check whether your vendor or software project manager is posing proper and precise questions to the client, which can actually help in understanding the end product. Check whether they have subject matter experts and project managers during the discussions.

2. Vendors, in-house teams and third-party contractors should be able to give nearly accurate time and budget frames for your project.

3. An experienced manager should try to understand the business case of the project, and tries to gauge the keenness of all your stakeholders. This is one of the many ways to ensure project success at a start-up company or new company that you are looking to set up.

 

2. Estimate Proper Time and Budget Frames

Once you are sure that your in-house or outsourced vendor has got a firm grip over the requirements and nature of the software project, expect a genuine timeline from them. Avoid vendors who keep on changing timelines, which implies that they have failed to gauge the project in its entirety. Ensure that the costing is purely based on the nature and complexity of the project, and not just on the assumptions.

 

3. Design and Processes are Vital; Give them Due Importance

Check if your vendor or your software team can come up with a clean design and execution plan. Software project planning and road map designing is the key, and if you see that the in-house or outsourced vendor is jumping directly to coding anticipating early rollouts, be careful as it could lead to disaster.

 

4. Engage a Team with the Right Skill Set

Most software development contracts (SDLC) tend to rely on the same team for each and every step of the SDLC, often ignoring the specific skills and competence that your project may demand at different stages. Interview junior developers before engaging them to work on your project if possible. Don't assign partly skilled developers under experienced developers just to save costs, which leads to software project failure.

 

5. Ensure that the Success Metrics are Well-defined

Do you know how to define success metrics and KPIs for a project? This will ensure that your vendor or project manager has got clear pointers to work upon and succeed. Failing to define these metrics like functional milestones may cause the project to fail as they are left unchecked.

 

6. Active User Participation is the Key

If not, you could be staring at a challenged or failed project. End users' perspective is a vital ingredient of your software project.

 

7. Ascertain that Testing is An Ongoing Process

Code testing should never take a backseat and must be part of every project from start to finish. Ensure that the project head is always ready with a clean working source - most vendors/PMs fail to do this and wait till the end to test the whole project. Failing to do so will surely lead to catastrophic errors in the live environment for you and your clients.

 

8. Skilled Executive Sponsors

Executive sponsors are critical to the success of a software project and if your vendor is engaging a poorly skilled or an executive sponsor who spends less time with the development process it will leave a deep dent in the overall development. Successful software projects have executive sponsors who fuel the whole development process with their presence and actions.

 

9. On-time Delivery of Internal Milestones

A clear milestone chart with details of every specific step of the process is important for project success. If your vendor/in-house team is delivering milestones on time and as per specifications you have engaged the right vendor. If they fail or often change milestone dates then you are in for trouble.

 

10. Revise or Revisit Requirements, Wherever Needed

This is a sign that they have a robust process and are keen to clarify things when needed. See whether your vendor is back to gather more requirements from you, which is a good sign.