Software Development Failures - Anatomy of Abandoned Projects

Mar 10, 2009 in Information Technology

Know in 10 minutes what it takes others hours, and keep up with the latest trends in your industry.
In this summary you will learn:

What software development failure is
Why this problem is common, costly and hard to solve
How your company can avoid software development meltdowns

Why you should read Software Development Failures
Here’s a two-ingredient recipe for disaster: take a big organization and mix in ambitious plans for a state-of-the-art software system. The disaster already happened at the IRS and Denver International Airport, both victims of software development missteps. Such failures are common, costly and all-too-avoidable, writes academic Kweku Ewusi-Mensah. While his prose can be dry, the examples he uses prove quite juicy. A little common sense could have saved the IRS billions and the Denver airport millions. Both fell victim to surprisingly basic pitfalls, such as unclear or unrealistic goals and over optimistic expectations that inexperienced people could get the job done. Ewusi-Mensah convincingly argues that organizations need to share such learning experiences, although he acknowledges that would mark a reversal from common practice. getAbstract.com recommends this book to managers and engineers involved in developing software. This cautionary tale could save your neck.

About the Author
Kweku Ewusi-Mensah is a professor of computer information systems at Loyola Marymount University.