Introduction
The history of software development teaches us that between 30 and 40 percent of all software projects fail. A good majority of those are canceled completely and never see the light of day. It seems everyone has a different prescription for how to avoid this fate. There are shelves of books on how to improve the software development process—books on Agile methodology, Scrum, the Waterfall method, rapid application development, extreme programming, top-down versus bottom-up, and even something called the chaos model.
When a business is faced with a software development project, people don't have the time to become experts in software management and development theory. What you need is not theory, but rather a practical, hands-on guide to managing this complex process, written in a language you can understand.
Some undertakings—be it having kids, climbing Mount Everest, or, yes, software development—are just difficult. And sometimes the most helpful thing is to hear from someone who has been there before and walked the path. That person can tell you what you're going to encounter and what difficulties to expect. An experienced guide may not be able to take away the challenges, but she can prepare you for them.
About a year ago, I was working on a large implementation project. About halfway through, a young project manager came to me and said, “Anna, do you have a crystal ball? Because at the beginning of this project you sat us all down and told us what to expect. ...
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