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Chapter 18 Ten Ways to Make Your Software Project Crash and Burn In This Chapter Avoiding that boring planning stuff Ignoring risk management Not relying on your team Building an Iron Triangle Keeping yourself invisible Making your schedules totally unrealistic Making sure the team loses respect for you You can make your software project crash and burn in so many ways that limiting this chapter to just ten is difficult. Some of the forces that could terminate your project are beyond your control: Say the CIO resolves to pull the project for financial reasons; or perhaps your project sponsor decides not to sponsor the project because of political considerations. Maybe the alignment of the planets just does not make the project feasible. In this chapter we focus on just ten ways that you and you alone, without the intervention of the Head Honcho, project sponsor, or astrological omens can kill a software project. Failing to Plan Failing to plan ahead is the most obvious way to fail. If you re looking for the quickest way to end your project, don t spend the majority of the total project time on planning. In fact, why not just avoid planning altogether? That ought to ensure that the project never takes off.
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In this part . . . The two chapters in the Part of Tens provide you with lots of useful information on what you should and should not do to ensure a successful project. While each project is different than every other software project, some items or disciplines are likely to always increase the chances of the project s success. By avoiding the points in Chapter 18 and by applying the tips in Chapter 19, you greatly enhance the likelihood of your project being successful and of maintaining a degree of sanity as the project progresses. In the Appendix, you can find some useful and interesting information regarding resources and professional development support, courtesy of the Professional Management Institute. You can also find out more about the PMP and CAPM certification exams. These exams are tough, but they can take you to the pinnacle of project management success.
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Part VI The Part of Tens
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346 Part V: Closing Your Software Project Avoiding helpless help systems Here are some important questions: Have you ever called an automated help system and been put on hold and transferred from one extension to another, never talking to a human being, and getting hung up on after an hour of frustration? Have you ever asked someone a question and been more confused by the answer than you were when you started? Have you ever tried to read a reference book (not this one, of course) and wondered what language it was written in? Have you every worked with a program whose help system crashed? Have you every worked with a program whose help system contradicted itself? Those are situations most of us can identify with and they share the same end result: frustration. When you want an answer, you want an answer that you understand, and you want it now. Here s what users don t want: They don t want to be sent somewhere else. They don t want to have to think about and process what was said. They don t want to have learned more than they need to know at this minute. When you design a help system, whether it lives online or in a print format, you need to keep users in mind and KISS. The best rule is to place yourself in the position of the end user you are creating the material for. As long as you keep these basic tenets in mind, you ll create documentation and help systems better than most that are currently out there.
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Chapter 17: Documenting Your Software Project 345 Death by documentation All too often, we tend to think of documentation What went wrong? How did this company fail as an add-on component to a project rather so miserably? than as an actual part of the project. The truth of The company sold the product for two prices. the matter is that documentation can make all The first price gave you only the software media. the difference between whether a project is a The second price (roughly twice as much) gave success or a failure. users the software media and thousands of Time after time, companies have created good pages of bound manuals on how to use it. products and then not invested the necessary Most programmers thought that moving from resources into their documentation. Many of version 3 to version 4 would be an evolutionary these products failed in the marketplace, not move (as opposed to a revolutionary move), and because they were bad products, but because didn t buy the manuals (or couldn t convince people didn t know how to use them. their managers that it was worth paying twice There once was a large software company as much for the product to get the books). (which no longer exists) that used to make a Without the manuals, developers fumbled very good development package. Version 3 of around and couldn t figure out how to do what this company s software was very well liked and they needed to do. Frustrated and angry, develstood a great chance of becoming the dominant opers abandoned the package. development platform in a specific field. Those who did get the manuals were over- Wanting to gain that market domination, the whelmed literally by thousands of pages company put all of its resources into coming spread out through five books that cross- out with version 4 something that would blow referenced one another so much that users had the socks off everything else on the market. The to have all the books open at once in order to company changed the user interface in version figure out how to do what you wanted to do. 4. It changed the options. It changed the calls. Those who spent the extra money also aban- It changed so much about the product that doned the new platform. users could barely tell by looking at version 4 Eventually the platform died; not because it was of the product that it was the same product as not good, but because the documentation killed version 3. it. Properly written documentation, properly In fact, the company had created a develop-packaged with a superb product, could have ment product that was well ahead of its time, propelled the company to a position of envy. and should have moved programming forward When you design your documentation, keep this dramatically. What happened, however, is that tale in the back of your mind and make certain the whole thing backfired and the software was that your products don t fall prey to the same dismissed. Meanwhile, another company came fate. This catastrophe is easy enough to pre- along and released the development software vent, but you must make a conscientious effort that became the de facto standard. to do so.
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344 Part V: Closing Your Software Project Keeping in mind that the end user is trying to successfully complete a specific task (whether that is generating a report about drinking water in the Amazon, formatting a disk while making giggling squeals, or something else that your software does), you need to focus on walking those users through that process. Here are some basic steps to follow when it comes to documenting operational transfer: 1. Start with the assumption that users have never used your software before. They are not familiar with your train of thought, and do not know how to do the task that they realize they need to do. Good documentation starts with logical programmers who create programs that allow users to perform tasks using a variety of simple, uniform methods. If you ve had good programmers working on your project and good quality assurance and testing, you already know where things are working and where things may require extra explanation. You also know which scenarios are most likely and which scenarios are least likely (you can guess that someone won t be trying to use the spell checker in software meant to record complex statistical data) so that you can focus on the areas that users are most likely to need help in. 2. Walk users through a very quick, common operation from start to finish. Don t go into any options or special features. Walk through the most basic operation imaginable and document each step. Don t make too many assumptions about the level of technological abilities of users. We hope you figured out the users abilities when you talked with the client and set up the product scope. But just because a program performs a simple task doesn t mean that the user is technologically unsophisticated and vice-versa. Maybe a piece of software does something pretty advanced. That doesn t mean that the user has the same skills as your programmers. 3. Discuss how someone may need to deviate from that basic operation if users need to do other things. Explain why someone would want to read from another file, format the output a specific way, or whatever else your software can do. 4. Begin walking through the operations again. This time, incorporate the option(s) that will make the changes. Again, assume the reader has no experience with your software and was not part of the team that created it. You don t want to talk down to users, but you do want to avoid racing through the material as if you were talking to a new developer joining the team.
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Chapter 17: Documenting Your Software Project 343 Odds are that you didn t read it any more than the user wants to read what you write. Why? Because you think the documentation that accompanied your purchase is worthless, too long, and was written by someone who doesn t speak your native language, is inaccurate, wrong, confusing. . . . You get the idea. We ll let you in on a secret: The For Dummies empire was built to fill a gap between the needs of software users and the worthless documentation they received from manufacturers. You want the documentation you read to give you the answer to the question you have in a way you can understand it. Then you want to move on with your life. Amazingly, that is what the user of your software wants from the documentation you create, as well. This is another area where it can often pay huge dividends if you can afford to have a technical writer as part of the team. Having an experienced person in this field can lessen the burden on the team. The following sections offer broad areas of advice for creating documentation for your software product. Read The Practical Guide to Project Management Documentation by John Rakos, Karen Dhanraj, Scott Kennedy, Laverne Fleck, Steve Jackson, and James Harris (Wiley) for more information on creating project documentation. Your company probably has specific guidelines that you should follow, as well. Using the project scope as a reference The starting point of anything the user is to see should be the project scope. Why did this software get created in the first place? What purpose does it fulfill? The user is using the software for that very purpose, and the only thing they want to know is how to accomplish this specific task. Begin with the scope, and then work through the operations, always focusing on the fact that the user hopes to reach the end point as quickly (and painlessly) as possible. Establishing operational transfer Operational transfer, the movement from the project implementation phase to the support phase, is about more than just the user coming to understand your new application to the point of being productive. It also represents the availability of the project team and the supporting IT staff to help users. You need to coordinate, that is, really communicate, the interaction of the folks that ll be using your software, the department that will support your software, and the project team that created the software.
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342 Part V: Closing Your Software Project You also know that sometimes your advice isn t heeded, just as you sometimes discount the advice of others who offer it to you. Even if you feel as if no one cares about your advice, you need to write down every bit of the advice you have. Pretend that the audience consists only of you. Write this section to yourself and no one else. Put it in the report, and know that those who read it have the chance to gain from it. As long as you write this section with the frame of mind that you can learn from it the next time you read it, you will be doing better than 99 percent of the project managers who complete this section. You may be tempted to add advice like, Never work with that rotten programmer from ABC Programming, Inc. He s arrogant and lazy, and he never does what you ask him to do. Of course we know we don t need to tell you this, but we re going to tell you anyway. Do not put anything in writing that expresses a negative, emotional opinion to other people. Even if you feel like your project was unsuccessful because of the actions of individuals, express these concerns neutrally and in general terms, such as, A high level of programming skill was needed in this project. I advise future project managers to give unknown candidate programmers a brief skills test and conduct thorough interviews when filling the positions. Make sure someone in HR calls outsource candidates references. Creating the User Manual and Help System Every piece of software needs a user manual and a help system associated with it, even if the piece of software is a subcomponent of a much larger software product. If you re building a subcomponent, the documentation for this smaller piece may simply need to be incorporated into an already-existing framework; alternatively, it may need to have stand-alone documentation and help files. If you re creating a stand-alone product or a component with standalone help and documentation, you have a real onus to create the best documentation available. Your technical writer or assigned team member should start creating the user manual and user help documents at the start of the project. This is an important deliverable to your software project, and should not be withheld until the end of the project. We ve all heard the usual gripes that users don t read the documentation, and that they just want someone to do it for them. Developers often like to ask, How hard can it be to press the Help key? Before you give these complaints any merit, let us ask a question: When was the last time you read the manual accompanying the software you bought, whether it be a development package, a word processor, or something else?
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Chapter 17: Documenting Your Software Project 341 you and move down those venues instead. This is your opportunity to save others from a whack in the head by incorporating these successes and failures into your lessons learned document. Not everything works. It s the way of life. It s the way of projects. Thomas Edison patented 1,093 inventions that s 1,093 successes he had with projects. Now imagine how many things didn t work out. Each one of those failed projects represented an opportunity to learn and refine skills. Some of Edison s inventions even came as the result of trying to do one thing and ending up with a completely different result. This story is repeated time and time again in history. The invention of Sticky Notes came about as a result of trying to create glue. The invention backfired, and the glue only sort of stuck. What was tried and did not work is just as important as what was tried that did work. If you document, in your lessons learned documentation, the route that led to failure, you ll create a map that keeps someone else from going down that same road, wasting money and time racing to a dead end. Sometimes an entire project ends in failure. When that happens, the project truly becomes nothing more than a feasibility study. Documenting the causes of the failure can really help out in the long term. You can say whether you think future projects of this type can ever be feasible and offer specific recommendations that ultimately improve your company s strategic approach. Documenting the better approach It s a question we all hate: If you could change any one thing, what would it be? If you could go back in time, knowing then what you know now, what would you do differently? What would have been a better approach than the one you took? While the exercise may seem unoriginal, or even pass , it is judicious and more than just an exercise in analytical reasoning. Keep in mind that you are creating a document to be read for future projects. Telling a better approach to take, even if only in the theoretical sense, can give the next project a better starting place than the one you used. Offering advice for future project managers Having just completed a project, you know what worked and what didn t. You know what you would do differently, and you know what subtle changes you would make if you had the chance to do it all over again.
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340 Part V: Closing Your Software Project contributed to the document. Although you may like to believe that those two lists were identical, some people have the gift of writing and organization, and some don t. You may discover that pulling coherent, usable documentation from some team members is next to impossible. Some members are a part of the team because their skill and expertise is needed in an area other than documentation. As much as you may not want to, you ll have to accept the fact that the writing is not something they are good at. Of course, accepting this fact may be a whole lot easier if the team members are crack coders! Documenting the project s successes Success is sweet. It feels good to accomplish something and know that you pulled off a task that was very difficult. It makes you feel all warm inside and beam with pride. But you know this already, right? Many people tend to downplay success and pass it off with, Ah, shucks, it was nothing, or, Just got lucky. Inside we may know that we did the impossible, but are afraid that saying so out loud will sound like bravado. After all, no one likes a braggart. Regardless of how you feel inside, you cannot be afraid to commit the successes to paper as part of your lessons learned documentation. Be honest about what was accomplished and don t be afraid to toot your own horn if necessary. The success came because you figured out what worked and directed your team to get the job done, and that is something that someone else can benefit from on their next project. Commit it to paper, be honest about it, and feel good about it! Documenting the project s failures Along the path, you experienced failures as well as successes. You went in one direction believing that it was the best path to follow, then were blind- sided by an issue that you never gave much forethought to. This is natural with almost every project. These are the unknown unknowns that whack you in the head and wreck your project. That experience of failure needs to be a part of your lessons learned documentation. You document your failures so that future projects will not run the risk of being similarly blindsided and so that readers can see what worked for
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