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The Fallacy of Perfect ExecutionDavid Wood Fredericksburg, Virginia, U.S. IF YOU THINK YOU CAN CREATE FLAWLESS CODE if you work hard enough, don’t be embarrassed. Many others have thought so, too. Unf

Document Your Process, Then Make Sure It Is FollowedMonte Davis, MCSE Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. DURIng An EMAIl MIgRATIon FRoM onE PlATFoRM To AnoThER, a woman got married and brought our email system to

Go Ahead, Throw That Practice OutNaresh Jain Malad, Mumbai, India WhAT Do SUCCESSFUl TEAMS Do ThAT oThERS Don’T? They constantly question their own practices and try to eliminate wasteful ones. They m

How Do You Define “Finished”?Brian Sam-Bodden Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S. IT IS hARD FoR A SoFTWARE DEvEloPMEnT TEAM To SUCCEED if there isn’t a clear definition of what success means. For developers, s

Keep Your PerspectiveJames Graham, PMP Ta’ l-Ibrag, Malta WhEn gAThERIng BUSInESS REqUIREMEnTS FRoM USERS, it is common to hear “the system is slow,” “the application is unreliable and crashes,” “it d

The 60/60 RuleDavid Wood Fredericksburg, Virginia, U.S. WE oFTEn PRETEnD that software development is the most important part of the software life cycle. Methodologies abound for development. Books, m

Clever Code Is Hard to MaintainDavid Wood Fredericksburg, Virginia, U.S. DEvEloPERS ARE oFTEn ASKED To CREATE MIRAClES. They must find clever ways to make today’s project code work with yesterday’s an

Empowering Developers: A Man Named TimKen Sipe St. Charles, Missouri, U.S. oFTEn ThE BEST ThIng a software project manager can do is set the vision, set the priorities, and get out of the way. Here’s

Project Management Is Problem ManagementLorin Unger Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S. In ThE BEST oF CIRCUMSTAnCES, software project management is a chal- lenging and complex endeavor. Yet, I often see PMs m

Requirement Specifications: An OxymoronAlan Greenblatt Sudbury, Massachusetts, U.S. gooD REqUIREMEnTS (R) describe how features of a product are going to solve particular existing or potential proble

Success Is Always Measured in Business ValueBarbee Davis, MA, PHR, PMP Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. AS PRojECT MAnAgERS, it’s easy to get caught up in meeting our time, cost, scope, and quality baselines. T

Provide Regular Time to FocusJames Leigh Toronto, Ontario, Canada SoFTWARE DEvEloPERS REgUlARly REPoRT that interruptions such as meetings, demos, and urgent bug fixes keep them from completing their

Planning for RealityCraig Letavec, PMP, PgMP, MSP Waynesville, Ohio, U.S. IT’S AMAZING HOW OFTEN SOFTWARE PROJECTS tend to fall into late, over-budget, off-quality situations. Even in highly touted so

IT Program Management: Shared VisionDavid Diaz Castillo, MBA, PMP Panama City, Panama ORGANIZATIONS OFTEN GROUP SEVERAL RELATED individual technology projects into a larger program. The strategy is to

To Thine Own Self Be TrueHarry Tucker Matawan, New Jersey, U.S. ANY OF US WHO HAVE TRAVELED ON COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT remem- ber that during the safety demonstration we are told to put our oxygen masks o

Chart a Course for ChangeKathy MacDougall Erie, Colorado, U.S. NEW SOFTWARE CHANGES THE WAY IN WHICH PEOPLE WORK. This may be good for the organization, but the people who work there aren’t always rea

Meetings Don’t Write CodeWilliam J. Mills Castro Valley, California, U.S. TOO OFTEN, people who could be doing something more productive are trapped in meetings—meetings that have wandered off their

Work in CyclesJames Leigh Toronto, Ontario, Canada oUR BoDIES ARE FUll oF nATURAl CyClES, and our productivity is no different. The human brain cannot focus on any single issue for more than a few ho

We Have Met the Enemy…and He Is UsBarbee Davis, MA, PHR, PMP Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. CARToonIST WAlT KEllEy, who inked the long-running comic strip Pogo, is famous for the quote, “We have met the enemy…

Don’t Skip Vacations for the ProjectJoe Zenevitch New York, New York, U.S. SoFTWARE PRojECT MAnAgEMEnT is a demanding profession. Besides being the most visible position on the team, usually you are

Developer Productivity: Skilled Versus AverageNeal Ford Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.lET’S DEBUnK SoME oF ThE MyThS about developer skills for project man- agers who have been assigned for the first time to s

How to Spot a Good IT DeveloperJames Graham, PMP Ta’ l-Ibrag, MaltaSoFTWARE PRojECT MAnAgERS know that project success rests on having excellent developers. How do you spot stellar performers in the ap

Pay Your DebtsBrian Sletten Beverly Hills, California, U.S. DEBT, WhEn WEll MAnAgED, is a useful financial instrument for both ordi- nary citizens and successful organizations. It balances present in

Managing Human Factors in IT Project ManagementJames Graham, PMP Ta’ l-Ibrag, Malta AS SoFTWARE PRojECT MAnAgERS, we obsess over the schedule details. We huddle with our teammates to try to anticipat

The Missing LinkPaul Waggoner, MBA, PMP, MCSE, CHP, CHSS Waukee, Iowa, U.S. SoFTWARE PRojECT MAnAgERS AgREE that one of their most difficult challenges is keeping team members properly engaged in the

Use a WikiAdrian Wible New York, New York, U.S. WIKIS ARE A gREAT MEChAnISM to centralize access to your project infor- mation. Hopefully, the wiki will be updated multiple times daily and will alway

Favor the Simple Over the ComplexScott Davis Broomfield, Colorado, U.S. AS FAR AS I’M ConCERnED, my microwave oven only has one button: “add a minute.” To boil a cup of water for my coffee, I press

Make Project Sponsors Write Their Own RequirementsMiyoko Takeya, PMP Tokyo, Japan PRojECT FAIlURE IS noT jUST A PRoBlEM with American corporations. According to a survey conducted several years ago

Get Users Involved As Early As PossibleBarbee Davis, MA, PHR, PMP Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.PAST PATTERnS oF SoFTWARE DEvEloPMEnT involved getting user requirements and then going off to do the coding and t

A Word Can Make You Miss Your DeadlinePavel Simsa, PMP Bellevue, Washington, U.S.WhICh WoRD CAn MAKE yoU MISS yoUR DEADlInE? The answer is “any word.” When you are developing a product that will be re

Estimate, Estimate, EstimateRichard Sheridan Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S. So oFTEn In PRojECT MAnAgEMEnT, we get an estimate for a project at the beginning of the project (when we know the least) and the

Developers Unite—PMOs Are AdvancingAngelo Valle Rio de Janeiro, Brazil IF yoU’RE A SoFTWARE DEvEloPER, you are probably convinced that a more responsive, adaptable framework is your best chance of pr

Value Results,Not Just EffortVenkat Subramaniam Broomfield, Colorado, U.S. DEvEloPIng SoFTWARE TAKES A loT oF EFFoRT. However, if you hear someone brag, “I work on an application with over 3 million l

Size MattersAnupam Kundu New York, New York, U.S.ThE SIzE oF ThE PRojECT, the size of the team, the size of the deliverables, and the size of the checklists—everything in a project depends on its SIZE.

Software Failure Is Organizational FailureBrian Sletten Beverly Hills, California, U.S. WE AlWAyS BlAME DEvEloPERS when things go wrong with software proj- ects in an organization. When deadlines are

You Aren’t SpecialJared Richardson Morrisville, North Carolina, U.S.REMEMBER WhAT yoUR MoM TolD yoU? “You’re special! You’re unique!” Right, just like every other boy or girl who had a mom! Believing t

A Voice from the Other SideMarty Skomal, MPA Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. WhIlE IT’S gREAT To hEAR FRoM DEvEloPERS and software project man- agers, you might find it equally advantageous to hear from the guy

Save Money on Your IssuesRandy Loomis, PMP Andover, Connecticut, U.S.oUR CoMPAny WAS USIng TRAInIng SoFTWARE that was five upgrades behind. We reached the point where it was so out of date that the ven

Scrolling Through TimeKim MacCormack Leesburg, Virginia, U.S.TWElvE yEARS Ago, my team was hired to develop a web application as a subcontractor for a graphic design firm. We were to have no direct con

Keep It Simple, SimonKrishna Kadali, M. Tech Kondapur, Hyderabad, India STAKEholDERS oF ThE PRojECT often make things more complicated than they need to be. This a common cause of software project fai