Effective Software Project Management

Where Do You Want To Go?

My goal is for 100 percent project success. Your goal should be very similar or exactly the same. Since the latest reports give estimates of around 30 percent IT project success, most organizations have a long ways to go to reach their goal. In Chapter 38 you set targets for several metrics that are tracked with your projects. These become the baseline against which all improvements are measured. A target goal of 100 percent project success is a sight to set for your enterprise, but the metrics will give you a more useful improvement measure. Set target values for those metrics consistent with the target goal.

One hundred percent project success means that the enterprise fully embraces and is willing to support the five SDPM strategies that have been discussed in this book.

The ideal end state is just that—ideal—a zero defect goal that is probably not attainable. But that shouldn’t diminish your enthusiasm or dedication to trying to reach that goal. My bias is that you establish a process improvement program where improvement is measured directly by increased levels of process and practice maturity and indirectly by project success rates. That is not the only way, but that is the way that I have found most effective. So think of the journey as nothing more than a continuous process improvement program, with the obvious emphasis on continuous. How it will end up is anybody’s guess. But at least you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you, your customer, ...