Many software projects that suffer a lingering death should have been canceled much earlier. Although it is hard to pull the plug on a project with a weak business case, failing to do so does throw good money after bad. This article by Karl Wiegers gives some tips on decision making that can help you avoid this outcome and shows how to use decision points to keep a good project moving along. (4 pages)
Too many outsourced software development projects wind up in litigation. The root causes of the project failure and resulting legal conflict are often related to the project's requirements, to communication issues, or to the project management approaches used (or not used). This article by Karl Wiegers presents 15 recommendations for keeping your outsourced project on track and out of court. A checklist helps you perform a health check on your project, to see if it's heading for trouble. (6 pages)
Unless you can honestly say, "I am building software today as well as software can ever be built," you should always be trying to improve your personal and your team's software development and project management capabilities. This 72-page handbook addresses many issues that can help software organizations implement and sustain a successful process improvement program. Whether you're using the CMM or CMMI as a process improvement framework, or just trying to learn how to work more effectively, you'll find a wealth of pragmatic guidance and useful insights about how to steer your organization toward better productivity and quality. (2 pages)
Zero in on key project-initiation tasks — and build a solid foundation for successful software development. In this concise guide, critically-acclaimed author Karl E. Wiegers fills a void in project management literature by focusing on the activities that are essential — but often overlooked — for launching any project. Drawing on his extensive experience, Karl shares lessons learned, proven practices, and tools for getting your project off to the right start — and steering it to ultimate success.
For more information on software best practices and IT management, please contact Michael Milutis, the IT Metrics and Productivity Journal Executive Director, at michael_milutis@compaid.com
