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> The alternative is often rough. Software projects like this have high failure rates. Getting “requirements” out of users’/clients’ heads and into programmer’s

> The alternative is often rough. Software projects like this have high failure rates. Getting “requirements” out of users’/clients’ heads and into programmer’s is difficult. It means the standard (natural?) gap between domain knowledge and programming knowledge is restored. That has costs. The alternative doesn't have to have a high failure rate. I was brought in to help reboot their in-house implementation of a product data management system - the core issue was they didn't have any real competency in software development (though they believed they did.) Ultimately I recommended they abandon the in-house effort and instead proposed using an off-the-shelf PDM system, we evaluated quite a few decent options over the course of six months and found several that met the business's requirements. It would have been the right thing to do and I believe it would have been successful. Culturally the IT department staff was plagued with not-invented-here syndrome. It was a generally dysfunctional IT group and it's quite likely that Excel got it's start as the system of record because the business needed to get the job done, and the IT department was unable or unwilling to deliver.

gjjrfcbugxbhf 9y ago
Alternatively you misunderstood the business requirements and would have cost then a fortune on a failed project. Alternatively you were brought in by management to make cost cutting recommendations - and your solution wasn't cheap enough. Alternatively the company accounted for the enormous risk of the project succeeding but actually being worse than what they had in place. You really don't know the politics of this. Edit: Another alternative is that your plan would have resulted in sufficient job losses that the company was worried that it would demotivate other employees and damage the company more than the cost savings.
- rattray 9y ago
  I upvoted your post because I think those alternatives are interesting to consider, but _you_ know far less about the politics of the situation than the OP. It's entirely possible that the OP was exactly correct, or close to correct. It's also quite likely that at least one of the factors you mentioned (or others) was also at play.
  - GiorgioG 9y ago
    OP here - the director that brought me in was (and still is) a straight shooter. There's no question as to why I was brought in. While she had the support of the CIO, the rest of the directors spent more time protecting their kingdoms than trying to modernize their systems. Fortunately for both myself and the director, we moved on from that organization.

gjjrfcbugxbhf 9y ago

Alternatively you misunderstood the business requirements and would have cost then a fortune on a failed project. Alternatively you were brought in by management to make cost cutting recommendations - and your solution wasn't cheap enough. Alternatively the company accounted for the enormous risk of the project succeeding but actually being worse than what they had in place. You really don't know the politics of this. Edit: Another alternative is that your plan would have resulted in sufficient job losses that the company was worried that it would demotivate other employees and damage the company more than the cost savings.

rattray 9y ago
I upvoted your post because I think those alternatives are interesting to consider, but _you_ know far less about the politics of the situation than the OP. It's entirely possible that the OP was exactly correct, or close to correct. It's also quite likely that at least one of the factors you mentioned (or others) was also at play.
- GiorgioG 9y ago
  OP here - the director that brought me in was (and still is) a straight shooter. There's no question as to why I was brought in. While she had the support of the CIO, the rest of the directors spent more time protecting their kingdoms than trying to modernize their systems. Fortunately for both myself and the director, we moved on from that organization.