Beyond Legacy Code

Why Projects Fail

We don’t like to talk about failure. Failure tells us there’s something we don’t understand. But failure does happen, and it’s perhaps more prevalent in software than most other industries. While the methods of the CHAOS study may be in question, the fact that the software development industry has considerable room for improvement cannot be refuted. Regardless of how the data are collected, no one works in our industry very long before realizing that it’s more likely a new software project will fail than succeed. This has made software development an “iffy” proposition at many companies, and failures often attract national attention.

This isn’t just happening to startup companies on shoestring budgets. We’re also talking about ...