Is your project late, over budget and with no end in sight?
If you hired a team to develop a software project and...
- it is consistently missing deadlines
- the project should have been delivered weeks or months ago but there is no telling how long it is still going to take
- glitches keep piling up and the team seems unable to keep up. It looks like playing a game of whack-a-mole, fix something here and something else pops up in a different place
- progress has come to a halt. The effort of fixing issues is preventing the completion of the rest of the project
- months into the project, the team does not fully understand the project goals or how to achieve them
- nobody is taking responsibility
...then your project is at risk and your investment may be wasted unless you take decisive action.
When a team is unable to deliver, business goals are endangered. Time-to-market suffers. Competitive advantages are lost. Opportunity costs skyrocket. Returns on investment are not realized or heavily diminished. Your project may need salvation before it is too late.
Salvation
- Preservation from destruction or failure.
- Deliverance from danger or difficulty.
Can all projects be saved?
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the sooner you know, the better: the answer is, unfortunately for everyone, no. Some projects are beyond salvation.
But isn't software infinitely malleable? Can you not eventually fix every issue? Yes, software is infinitely malleable and yes, given enough resources, you can eventually fix every issue.
By the time you get an expert on your side, however, what has been developed so far could be so inadequate that the rest of the features cannot be added without massive costs involved. Or the errors so pervasive that every time something is fixed, three other things break. In such cases, it might make more sense to cut your losses and start from scratch, which means your investment until this point is money down the drain.
In other situations, the right guidance can allow the project to continue and eventually meet its goals. Sometimes, unforeseen issues do come up and given the right direction and some time, the team will be able to deliver a successful project.
Unfortunately, the best course of action is not always evident to someone who is not intimately familiar with software development. For a layperson, it is hard or impossible to evaluate the true state of a project. When the development team say they are close to the end and what you see are only minor issues that will be fixed quickly, is that a valid assessment or are there deeper problems that will further delay the project. At the end of it all, will you get what you expect?
In these circumstances, bringing on board an impartial, trusted advisor can be beneficial. Someone who has no emotional investment either in the project itself or in the team developing it, who can evaluate things with a fresh perspective. Someone who can work with you, the project owner, to evaluate whether the team is on the right track to deliver the results you expect but needs a bit more time… or alert you that the project is severely at risk and help you start putting safeguards in place and guide the development team towards success.
It is time to act
If you have read this far, you are involved with a software project that may be about to derail. Request a free, no-obligation call to discuss your problem and find a solution together.