Big topic. Why do projects fail? They fail on expectations.

You have the expectations of the intended audience. What do they think they'll get? Often we set them up for failure because we ask them to come up with a pie-in-the-sky laundry list of wants and say "uh yeah, we can do that." And we aren't lying. We can. But they probably won't get it all on first release.

And then there are the expectations of the development crew. How much testing? How much can we count on the QA group? How much can we count on the user group? How much input do we get in how we solve problems?

It's more amazing that large projects work, than that they fail. And it takes a special skill set to pull it all together and keep things going. Your ace number 1 perl guru probably doesn't also have that skill. I'm not saying that the project manager should get paid more than the ace guru, but I am saying that you have to respect that it's a different skill set and it's a pretty darn important one.

--
I used to drive a Heisenbergmobile, but every time I looked at the speedometer, I got lost.

In reply to Re: Musings: Why do well-intentioned projects go so wrong, so often? by KurtSchwind
in thread Musings: Why do well-intentioned projects go so wrong, so often? by locked_user sundialsvc4

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