Question

In a perfect world, every project would be characterized by clear project requirements that never changed; motivated/capable team members; proven technologies; more than adequate budgets in terms of time, money, and resources; responsible/knowledgeable stakeholders; and seamless, effective communication so that when a problem arises, it is communicated and dealt with quickly. However, we do not live in a perfect world! In your opinion, which three of the five common project hazards described in the book have the potential to be the most costly? Explain why.

Answer 1

Theories in any field always are proposed considering perfect or ideal situations. These assumptions regarding ideal situations, howsoever impractical, enable us to apply those theories in our practical situations since deviation from original though present, are modest as compared to the practicality of the theory. So we are able to get good approximations, if not accurate values, from the application of proposed theories.

Same thing happens in the field of software/application/project development as well. Considering an example of, CPM (Critical Path Method) used to calculate the project completion time by utilizing the dependency graph of various steps or milestones of the project development. It provides an estimate of the project completion time so as to judge which path is critical in the project and hence identify those milestones which are likely to cause delay in the completion of the project. The assumptions regarding time taken to complete a phase is purely based on approximations of clear project requirements that won't change; motivated/capable team members; proven technologies; more than adequate budgets in terms of time, cost, and resources; responsible/knowledgeable stakeholders; and seamless, effective communication.

But the problem is that all ideal situations don't occur and unforeseeable does occur which can be a consequence of any of the situation. According to me following 3 have proven to be the most costly hazards in the development phase of the project:

1. Changing Project Requirements:

The first and foremost hazard in the project development is changing project requirements. Prototyping and thorough requirement analysis and gathering does help in reducing the pain involved with project requirements, but rarely do these activities( prototyping & requirement gathering and analysis ) completely eliminate the hazard. This problem becomes more sophisticated once a module/part is completed and tested and the change comes in that module only. At times, changes are so drastic that whole effort needs to be repeated which not only increases time but also affects cost and motivation of the development team. This hazard is more profound in Agile software development methodologies in which each module is required to be built as per the user and user needs to approve it (or specify changes) then the process goes on with the development.

2. Budget

With globalization of marketplace, mainly through the World Wide Web and advanced telecommunication. It is the IT industry that has utilized its applicability to the best. Since, now companies can outsource a software product from any other continent or country without much predicament. Consequently, this has resulted in the global rivalry to become fiercer. Which means that companies not only have to deliver a product, superior in quality, but also in lesser time & with tight budget. So, this eventually comes down to the development involving lesser time and cost. Tight deadlines, at times causes the project to suffer greatly in terms of quality and hence reliability. Moreover, with newer technologies coming up, it is becoming more important to develop scalable and secure systems as well which further adds to the impedance.

3. Stakeholders

The role of stakeholders in concern with the project can't be overlooked to any extent. Stakeholders are the ones that affect the project directly or indirectly. Most teams are headed by competent managers who not only monitor the project considering the deadlines but also provide the team with required motivation and key areas of the project to look upon with intense care. In some cases, managers come from non-technical background which may lead to them providing impractical or unfeasible deadlines which puts undue pressure on the team under him and consequently affecting the project quality and completion time. Stakeholder can be anyone involved in the project be it developer to team leads, project leads, support team, testing team, business analysts to customers. Loophole of irresponsibility at any level can lead to the suffering of project in terms of time, cost or quality.