http://www.codingthearchitecture.com/tags/failure/ Software architecture for developers en Coding the Architecture Wed, 16 May 2012 08:01:04 GMT Pebble (http://pebble.sourceforge.net) http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.codingthearchitecture.com/2007/11/23/why_do_so_many_technology_projects_fail.html <p> The Financial Times published an interesting article earlier in the week entitled <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c24b1248-9759-11dc-9e08-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=4dce8136-4a24-11da-b8b1-0000779e2340.html?nclick_check=1"> Perspectives: Why do so many technology projects fail?</a> (registration required) detailing a court action between BSkyB and EDS. In summary, it's about the failure to deliver a software project, how software projects aren't like construction projects, how a new way of working is needed, etc, etc. It's all stuff we've heard before and, as the article says, are lessons never learned? </p> <p> Why do so many technology projects fail? Here are my thoughts, some of which overlap with the FT's article. </p> <ul> <li>Iterative and agile techniques have revolutionized the way that software development is performed, but our industry needs to take a step back and look at the way in which software projects are engaged. Why, when you read about so many high profile big budget software failures, do businesses still initiate software projects with "we want this, tell me how much it will cost"? *We* know that they'll change their mind. *They* know that they'll change their mind. So let's change the engagement model, stop hiding behind fixed price contracts and work *together* to solve problems.</li> <li>In my opinion, the view that software development is a commoditized skill is wrong. This is regardless of whether software is developed on-shore, off-shore, etc. Software development is a discipline that's part engineering and part art. If you want decent software built, don't treat it like a commodity. You wouldn't want anybody to build you a Ferrari, would you?</li> <li>And finally, of course, there's the <a href="http://www.codingthearchitecture.com/2007/11/14/technical_architects_in_investment_banking.html">lack of a technical architect</a>. Not all architects sit in ivory towers throwing unworkable "solutions" at development teams. Some of us like to work *in* the development team and eat our own dog food. Think of how many software projects you've seen that function correctly but are not fast enough, scalable enough or secure enough. That's why you need an architect.</li> </ul> <p> I was chatting to <a href="http://www.codingthearchitecture.com/authors/sdalton/">Sam</a> yesterday and he has some interesting thoughts too, which I'm hoping he'll write about one day. Something that we both agreed on though, is that the software industry generally needs to learn some lessons and wake up to some of the shortcomings that are so prevalent today. </p> What is software architecture? http://www.codingthearchitecture.com/2007/11/23/why_do_so_many_technology_projects_fail.html#comments http://www.codingthearchitecture.com/2007/11/23/why_do_so_many_technology_projects_fail.html Fri, 23 Nov 2007 14:48:00 GMT