Death March, Second Edition

Table of contents

1. Copyright
   1. Dedication
2. Mission Statement for Yourdon Press Series
3. About the Series Editor
4. Selected Titles from the Yourdon Press Series
5. Preface
6. 1. Introduction
   1. Death March Defined
   2. Categories of Death March Projects
   3. Why Do Death March Projects Happen?
      1. Politics, politics, politics
      2. Naive promises made by marketing, senior executives, naive project managers, and so on
      3. Naive optimism of youth: “We can do it over the weekend”
      4. The “startup” mentality of fledgling entrepreneurial companies
      5. The “Marine Corps” mentality: Real programmers don't need sleep
      6. Intense competition caused by globalization of markets
      7. Intense competition caused by the appearance of new technologies
      8. Intense pressure caused by unexpected government regulations
      9. Unexpected and/or unplanned crises
   4. Why Do People Participate in Death March Projects?
      1. The risks are high, but so are the rewards
      2. The “Mt. Everest” syndrome
      3. The naiveté and optimism of youth
      4. The alternative is unemployment
      5. It's required in order to be considered for future advancement
      6. The alternative is bankruptcy or some other calamity
      7. It's an opportunity to escape the “normal” bureaucracy
      8. Revenge
   5. Summary
   6. Notes
7. 2. Politics
   1. Identifying the Political Players in the Project
      1. Owner
      2. Customers
      3. Shareholders
      4. Stakeholders
      5. Champions
   2. Determining the Basic Nature of the Project
   3. Levels of Commitment By Project Participants
   4. Analyzing Key Issues that Lead to Political Disagreements
   5. Conclusion
   6. Notes
8. 3. Negotiations
   1. Rational Negotiations
   2. Identifying Acceptable Tradeoffs
   3. Negotiating Games
   4. Negotiating Strategies
   5. What To Do When Negotiating Fails
   6. References
      1. Bibliography
   7. Notes
9. 4. People in Death March Projects
   1. Hiring and Staffing Issues
   2. Loyalty, Commitment, Motivation, and Rewards
      1. Rewarding Project Team Members
      2. The Issue of Overtime
   3. The Importance of Communication
   4. Team-Building Issues
   5. Workplace Conditions for a Death March Project
   6. Summary
   7. References
      1. Bibliography
   8. Notes
10. 5. Death March Processes
    1. The Concept of Triage
    2. The Importance of Requirements Management
    3. SEI, ISO-9000 and Formal Versus Informal Processes
    4. Good-Enough Software
    5. Best Practices and Worst Practices
    6. Death March Meets XP
    7. Conclusion
    8. References
       1. Bibliography
    9. Notes
11. 6. The Dynamics of Processes
    1. Models of Software Development Processes
       1. Mental Models
       2. Spreadsheet Models
       3. Static Versus Dynamic Models
    2. Visual Models
    3. An Example: Tarek Abdel-Hamid's Software Process Model
    4. Summary And Conclusions
    5. References
       1. Bibliography
    6. Notes
12. 7. Critical-Chain Scheduling and the Theory of Constraints
    1. Introduction
    2. What Organizational Behaviors are Dysfunctional?
    3. How Can We Change Dysfunctional Organizational Behavior?
    4. Life in a Rational World
    5. Critical-Chain Scheduling
    6. Conclusion
    7. References
       1. Bibliography
    8. Notes
13. 8. Time Management
    1. The Impact of Corporate Culture On Time Management
    2. Time Slippage from Stakeholder Disagreements
    3. Helping the Project Team Make Better Use of Time
    4. Notes
14. 9. Managing and Controlling Progress
    1. THE “Daily Build” Concept
    2. Risk Management
    3. Additional Ideas for Monitoring Progress: Milestone Reviews
    4. References
       1. Bibliography
    5. Notes
15. 10. Death March Tools and Technology
    1. The Minimal Toolset
    2. Tools and Process
    3. Risks of Choosing New Tools
    4. Conclusion
    5. References
       1. Bibliography
    6. Notes
16. 11. Simulators and “War Games”
    1. Introduction
    2. The Concept of War Games
    3. Conclusion
    4. References
       1. Bibliography
    5. Notes