Chapter 7Before the Project

Do you ever get the feeling that your project is doomed, even before it starts? Sometimes it might be, unless you establish some basic ground rules first. Otherwise, you might as well suggest that it be shut down now, and save the sponsor some money.

At the very beginning of a project, you'll need to determine the requirements. Simply listening to users is not enough: read The Requirements Pit to find out more.

Conventional wisdom and constraint management are the topics of Solving Impossible Puzzles. Whether you are performing requirements, analysis, coding, or testing, difficult problems will crop up. Most of the time, they won't be as difficult as they first appear to be.

When you think you've got the problems ...

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