Rethinking success in software projects: Looking beyond the failure factors

Abstract

The notions of success and failure in software projects are confusing. Failure is often considered in the context of the iron triangle as the inability to meet time, cost, and performance constraints. While there is a consensus around the prevalence of project failure, new projects seem destined to repeat past mistakes. This chapter tries to advance the discussion by offering a new perspective for reasoning about the meaning of success and the different types of software project failures. In order to court project success, practitioners need to rise beyond a fixation with the internal parameters of efficiency, thus bringing forth the effectiveness required to secure project success. The chapter begins by discussing the limited insights from existing project failure surveys, before offering a four-level model addressing the essence of successful delivery and operation in software projects. Following consideration of outcomes and time, the chapter offers a series of vignettes and mini case studies that highlight the rich interplay between the four levels of success, before addressing the types of measures underpinning the four levels and the need to develop a multi-dimensional perspective to obtain a more accurate picture regarding the success of a project.