Software projects Fail

Question: Discuss about the "Why Software projects Fail". Answer: Introduction This report is about topic of Why Software projects Fail? Software development projects is a cumbersome task to perform by developers. With the advancement in technology, various software projects are developed to perform various business, educational and other common users requirements. At our workplaces we commonly see that different types of software are installed into computer system that are used to handle various business tasks. Development process of software must be done according to its major requirements and with proper testing procedures. Software project failures are common among software developers and it has happened due to lack of fulfillment of requirements, anomalies into systems and other security and privacy issues of software. Every customer who wants to use software solution for business, he/she wants proper security and privacy of confidential data and error free results. If these demands will not be fulfilled by software developers then it will lead to software failure. The purpose of making this report is to discuss a case study of software project failure and why did it happen? (Calleam.com, 2016) Discussion It is an important section of this report, here we will discuss in detail above listed important concepts regarding software projects failure. Software project failure is poor management of performance of a project. A right team with appropriate skills and knowledge are key success to project. Good planning and strategies are also required for implementing each step of project successfully. The implementation of planning and strategic approach should be made to avoid conflicts and risks of projects. Here we have a case study about failure of software project. Description of Case Study Software Project Failure The case study about which we are going to discuss here is about Denver Airport Baggage System. This baggage handling system is considered most advanced system in the world that is executed at Denver Airport. But it became one of the most notorious project failure example for whole world. In this system, automate handling of baggage was planned on entire airport and it was proved that this system was more complex than some had originally believed. There was delay of $560M USD to the overall cost of Airport, for implementing this automation Airport Baggage System. At end of the day, when finally project was implemented then it was not actually according to pre-planned project. This system was supported outbound flights on a single square rather than integrating all three squares into a square. Due to this, most of the baggage was handled by a manual tug and trolley system and automatic system did not meet actual goals of project. There was also problem in different portions of system and it did not work properly. Eventually, in Aug 2005, this system was scrapped totally. The maintenance cost of this software project was also high i.e. $1M monthly and it was outweighing the value of cost of remaining parts of system. In this way, this big and expensive software project was failed. Here are some essential reasons that contribute in failure of this project. (Bayt.com, 2016) Reasons of Software Project Failure Automation Baggage Software at Denver Airport was failed drastically and heavy loss occurred. Following are some essential reasons that describes that why this project was failed. The main reason of this large software project failure is underestimated complexity. Developers of this system did not measure overall complexity of this system such as how many concourses are required and how these should be situated. (com, 2016) Other reason of failure of this project is its complex architecture. In planning or designing phase of every software project development process, every component of architecture of system should be clearly defined and analyzed. Without clearance about every component of this type of complex system, it is not right to start its implementation. Errors and System anomalies may cause system damage. Cost and time are two very crucial factors for every software project. As we have already discussed above, in this project so much delay occurred and due to this, cost of overall project was increased upto $560M. This was happened due to underestimation of cost and budget of whole project by developers. (Ewusi-Mensah, 2003) Other essential reason for failure of this project is dismissal of advice from experts. Leadership always performs an important role in implementation of every project development. If a project is developing under guidance of an expert leader then it is possible that project failure can be controlled at large extent. In this Denver Airport project, no proper guidance is provided to developers and other team members. Therefore, due to this, management of this project faced this big issue. (InfoQ, 2016) Backup or recovery of information is most important for every software solution. It is helpful in case of damage of database. If we have backup of information then recovery is possible. In this automation baggage system, no backup and recovery process is implemented for handling situations of system failed. These are key points of overall failure of project that should have considered by developers of this project. Risk management failures also contribute in failure of this project. In implementation of project, various technical complexities were faced such as electrical system failure, power fluctuations that can crash whole system and others. These all problems lead to heavy risk factors. Besides this, delivery and installation of the filters took so many months and in testing various constrained are found. These risk factors should have identified by developers of this project before deploying this project. Risk factors may lead to failure of project or heavy loss can occur that is unpredictable. After this discussion, we can say that the main reason of failure of this project is negligence and lack of proper analysis of whole project by its developers and other senior level experts. Risk management matrices is an effective solution to identify and control risk factors and it must b e implemented by software developers in appropriate ways. At last we can say that failure of project happened due to lack of management of oversight, poor design, people working in silos and lack of due diligence. References "Denver Airport Baggage System Case Study Why Do Projects Fail? . Calleam.com. Calleam Consulting Ltd, Denver. Web. 6 Oct. 2016. What Is The Definition Of Project Failure? Why Do Projects Fail?". Bayt.com. Web. 6 Oct. 2016. "10 Reasons Why Software Projects Fail - Outsource2india". Outsource2india.com. Copyscape. Web. 6 Oct. 2016. "The Most Common Reasons Why Software Projects Fail". InfoQ. Contegix, 13 July 2015. Web. 6 Oct. 2016. Software Development Failures. Ewusi-Mensah, Kweku. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2003. Print.