On May 26, 2007, at 5:11 PM, Ted Roche wrote:
> was just reading a column in the most recent Communications of the
> ACM where a strong argument was presented that not only do 80% of IT
> projects fail to meet their goals, but that they are _set_up_ that way
> by PHBs who demand estimates with unreasonably optimistic schedules
> and resources, specs simpler than the developers know the customers
> will accept, and unreasonable deadlines and assumptions of no
> contingency for unknowns in the estimate.
>
> I don't believe that the doctor or lawyer model is the correct one,
> without a lot of discussion.
I don't think that there is any single "profession" involved here.
Just as there is a sharp distinction between architects and the
"trades", such as carpenters, electricians, etc., there needs to be a
recognition that there are various skills involved in the computer
programming world.
Why don't 80% of new office building fail? Why don't 80% of new
warehouses fail? Because people who don't know how to construct
buildings don't get to make decisions on things such as the amount of
load that can be borne by any member of a structure. When buildings
fail, you can go back to the blueprints, the material specs, the
delivery orders, etc., and verify what was supposed to happen vs.
what actually happened.
How many carpenters would proudly proclaim themselves to be
"building hos" and build whatever they were told, even if they knew
it would not be safe?
-- Ed Leafe
-- http://leafe.com
-- http://dabodev.com
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