I The Survival Mind-Set
O
ur standards for software product performance are unbelievably
exacting compared
to our
standards
for
software
project
performance.
The software user community expects software products to run for hours
without crashing, executing millions of source code instructions with few or
no errors. But the software development community expects far less from
its projects. Users and clients might complain if a project is delivered one
month, three months, or six months late, if it's hard to use, or if it lacks a few
critical functions. But if the bulk of the planned software product is deliv-
ered at all—at any cost—ever—most software consumers will consider that
project to be a success. We have suffered so many failed projects that the only
outcome we really consider to be a failure is total collapse.
The upper echelons of the software industry have understood for many
vears what is needed to perform at a much higher level than is currently
practiced. A successful project should be one that meets its cost, schedule,
and quality goals within engineering tolerances and without padding its
schedule or budget. After detailed plans have been made, the current state
of the art supports meeting project goals within plus or minus 10 percent or
better. This level of performance is currently within the reach of the average
software project manager, and in many cases can be substantially influenced
by project "outsiders"—upper managers, executives, clients, investors, and
end-user representatives.
As chief software engineer at Construx Software Builders, I have been
asked to review many failed projects. To the trained eye, the reasons for fail-
ure are usually apparent. Failure of medium-size software projects (those with
20,000-250,000 lines of source code) is almost always avoidable. Moreover, I
have found that software projects can be optimized to meet any of several
goals: shortest schedule, least cost, best quality, or any other goal. Not all of
these goals can be achieved simultaneously, and the approach described in this
book strikes a careful balance among these objectives so that a high-quality
product can be delivered according to an efficient schedule at moderate cost.
SURVIVAL NEEDS
The first step in software project survival is recognizing a software project's
essential survival needs. Abraham Maslow observed that human beings
respond to a hierarchy of needs that involve a natural progression from
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