IT and Software Projects Fail . . . and fail, and fail
When was the last time you can recall your web site being updated on time, a new software installation in your office going smoothly, or new computers delivered and set up without problems? How about never? Uh-huh.
Take heart. You're not alone. In point of fact, Information Services (IS) and Information Technologies (IT) installations (servers, networks, telecommunications), software development (web sites, new software applications), and new computer hardware (laptops, desktops, printers, etc.) remain far too glitchy, unstable, and fraught with set up and installation problems. The cost of all those problems to almost all SOHOs and small businesses is scary.
Thousands of dollars are lost each year by most SOHOs and small businesses because of web site programming problems, graphic artists who pretend to be web designers and hand you slow-loading sites, problematic database installations which leave your customers gasping for air as they leave your online store frustrated by poor functionality and tiny product photos and worse. At the grassroots of IS/IT projects - software development that is - inaccurate timelines, endless problems unforeseen during planning, poor project organization, sloppy programming, and programmers who build mini empires around their precious code, result in product delays amounting to months and sometimes years.
It's only money - billions of dollars, pounds, euros, pesos, yen and so on, just flying out the door. Don't mention the problems to your IS/IT trades or consultants or development staff however. You'll get the cold shoulder (and, strangely, even more problems and delays will crop up). Dare to suggest to a team of programmers that they should spend more time planning a project than arguing (fighting, battling) over its direction half-way in, and they'll turn on you like a pack of rabid wolves insisting that you'd better not try to tell them what to do or things will get screwed up even more.
The day of the programmer, software engineer, software architect, operator, IT manager and program manager essentially determining the fate of the products on which they're working must end as soon as possible. Many of these people have cost us dearly in viability, usability, salability and profitability.
There are large groups of great programmers, engineers, operators and IT managers who really know their stuff. They consistently deliver on time, communicate well and work toward the success of the companies at which they're employed. The competency percentage is unfortunately lower than that of other disciplines in the working world. That has to change.
Technology schools must be tasked with the notion of discipline in the business world. The fact that software development is taught without a concurrent education about the dangers of poor planning is a traditional omission which has to be immediately remedied.
Take heart. You're not alone. In point of fact, Information Services (IS) and Information Technologies (IT) installations (servers, networks, telecommunications), software development (web sites, new software applications), and new computer hardware (laptops, desktops, printers, etc.) remain far too glitchy, unstable, and fraught with set up and installation problems. The cost of all those problems to almost all SOHOs and small businesses is scary.
Thousands of dollars are lost each year by most SOHOs and small businesses because of web site programming problems, graphic artists who pretend to be web designers and hand you slow-loading sites, problematic database installations which leave your customers gasping for air as they leave your online store frustrated by poor functionality and tiny product photos and worse. At the grassroots of IS/IT projects - software development that is - inaccurate timelines, endless problems unforeseen during planning, poor project organization, sloppy programming, and programmers who build mini empires around their precious code, result in product delays amounting to months and sometimes years.
It's only money - billions of dollars, pounds, euros, pesos, yen and so on, just flying out the door. Don't mention the problems to your IS/IT trades or consultants or development staff however. You'll get the cold shoulder (and, strangely, even more problems and delays will crop up). Dare to suggest to a team of programmers that they should spend more time planning a project than arguing (fighting, battling) over its direction half-way in, and they'll turn on you like a pack of rabid wolves insisting that you'd better not try to tell them what to do or things will get screwed up even more.
The day of the programmer, software engineer, software architect, operator, IT manager and program manager essentially determining the fate of the products on which they're working must end as soon as possible. Many of these people have cost us dearly in viability, usability, salability and profitability.
There are large groups of great programmers, engineers, operators and IT managers who really know their stuff. They consistently deliver on time, communicate well and work toward the success of the companies at which they're employed. The competency percentage is unfortunately lower than that of other disciplines in the working world. That has to change.
Technology schools must be tasked with the notion of discipline in the business world. The fact that software development is taught without a concurrent education about the dangers of poor planning is a traditional omission which has to be immediately remedied.
Labels: Development, engineers, IS/IT, programming, project management, Software
posted by Howard Carson, Managing Editor @ 9:34 AM
