The enterprise software project is notorious for running past schedule, over budget and sometimes altogether amok. The way to save a software project--and possibly your job--is by being able to spot and resolve problems early in the process, before it's too late, advises Larry Tieman, former senior vice president at FedEx.

Assigning major project responsibilities to at least three high-level individuals can go a long way in detecting problems because it establishes multiple, independent perspectives on a project's progress. When Tieman was at FedEx, high-risk software projects were usually put in the charge of a vice president, and a program manager and technical lead were given major responsibilities as well.

For projects of the highest risk, the technical lead and program manager, as well as the VP, reported directly to Tieman. Another benefit of having the program manager report directly to Tieman was that it gave that individual the "implied authority" to challenge any status reports coming from the project team, which facilitates more accurate assessments of the progress.

You can also reduce the risk of project failure by introducing an independent view in the software testing stage, Tieman writes. One way to do this is by creating a vice president position for testing, which can help "put testing on the same footing as development, improve the quality of critical software, and [provide] another voice in a project," he writes.

One of Tieman's database projects at FedEx involved a number of technical issues that needed to be dealt with prior to development. The technical lead on the project was key in identifying the issues and overseeing the testing in the vendor's lab. The products ended up failing and the fix took a few weeks, but once the issues were resolved, the project went on to be a success.

"Like everyone else who has made a career of building and installing software systems, I have had my share of difficult and failed projects. But none ever failed spectacularly," Tieman writes. "The key is to structure enterprise software projects to eliminate all the known risks, and then to structure the team to get as many independent views as possible--and then listen to them."

For more:
- see Larry Tieman's post at InformationWeek

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