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I don't agree that on time and on budget are the correct measures for determining overall project success or failure. By these standards a multi-year project de
by btutt 2y ago
I don't agree that on time and on budget are the correct measures for determining overall project success or failure. By these standards a multi-year project delivered a single day after the original estimate, or a massively profitable project that went a dollar over the original budget are counted as a failed project. Ideally some actual business outcomes need to be included before determining if a project succeeded or failed.
I think this problem persists for a lot of research and discourse about software project success and failure where we conflate whether we estimated accurately with whether or not the project succeeded or met the needs of the business.
- TheCoelacanth 2y agoAlso, a project that was cancelled after two weeks because it was determined that it wouldn't be valuable enough is a failure while a project that spent two years building something and then didn't make a single dollar is a success as long as it was budgeted for two years. Sometimes a quick failure is the best outcome.