software projects

Launching successful projects

Mon, 14 May 2007 20:01:39 -0400

The most successful projects deliver tangible business value in the first 30 days. By quickly delivering value business people can immediately use, stakeholders can see clear evidence that the project is headed in the right direction and will live up to expectations. Another way to ensure that stakeholders see value immediately is to keep the scope narrow by delivering 20 percent of the capabilities that provide 80 percent of the value. And keep it really simple; it's often better to build systems where the user interface is composed of common office productivity tools like spreadsheets, web browsers, word processing, and personal databases. People already know how to use these tools so there is much less of a learning curve. IT agility like this delivers major business benefits at a fraction of the time and cost otherwise incurred if companies go the conventional route of buying and installing large, complex, all-in-one packages.

Read more about successful IT projects:
- read the blog at CIO

ALSO:
- read this on why too many software projects invite trouble
- and this for tales of projects that crashed and burned

Survey: Vision, leadership lead to BI success

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 20:01:39 -0400

The failure of business intelligence software projects is more often due to lack of leadership than technology. This dovetails with the results of a new Gartner survey, which found that a lack of ownership by the right executive often leads to a disconnect between the vision of senior management and the way a project is approached and accomplished. The survey, of 350 organizations, found that only 10 percent reported that their projects had a C-level executive sponsor with a direct link to the business. Forty percent said that their business intelligence projects were owned by lower-level business executives. That's not ideal, because that group tends to have tactical rather than strategic goals, which can hurt a project's success. To find out what caused a business intelligence project to fail, CIOs should ask themselves if they have given the organization a clear sense of what the company wants to get out of business intelligence. They should also ask whether they are really arming their employees with the right metrics so they can deliver valuable information.

Learn more about what it takes to succeed with business intelligence:
- read the article at TechTarget

ALSO:
- read this on the basics of business intelligence
- this on how collaboration increases business intelligence
- this on using BI to avoid useless information
- and this on intelligent business intelligence

Too many software projects invites trouble

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:01:38 -0400

Launching many small software projects instead of enhancing existing programs may seem easier, but it often results in redundancy and inefficiency. But starting too many software projects creates its own complexities, with more than 600 programming languages, dozens of metrics for measuring progress, and more than 30 different development methods for compliance and at least 15 different approaches to software testing. And perhaps most disturbingly, companies adding a plethora of small applications over time will end up with a huge collection of systems that perform comparable but not identical functions, each with its own maintenance costs that can't be shared across applications. Focus instead on consolidating applications and standardizing the corporate infrastructure. Also, have tight control over communication protocols, allowing applications to be merged more easily.

To read more about why many small software applications is short-sighted:
- read the article at Baseline

Why software development needs more attention

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 20:01:36 -0400

There's more software development going on in the business world today than ever before and for tech leaders that means boosting management measures, better assessment (so that software projects don't go bad) and realizing that growing complexity means greater costs and potential development flaws. The key to keeping a firm hand on the software tiller is having a three-pronged strategy that includes measuring developmental progress, implementing a robust product life-cycle management plan and focusing on reducing complexity in every corner of the cycle. As one expert explains, good software development happens "when good business decisions are made."

For more on good software development direction:
- don't miss this article at Optimize

PLUS: In case you missed it, here's an article on measuring IT success. Article