Montreal.rb: 10 warning signs in IT projects

It is know that in the IT industry project have a high percentage of failure. But what if we could see the warning signs before it is too late?

In this presentation, Yann Larrivée will explain through story telling the 10 warning signs you should look for throughout the implementation of your project in order to prevent many sleepless nights and project failure. For each warning signs one or more solutions will be given."

Transcript

1. http://foolab.ca @foolabca 10 warning signs in IT projects. Montreal.rb – January 21, 2014
2. Some statistics • 70% of IT projects fail • 66% of projects go over budget • 33% go over schedule • 17 % under deliver value
3. Yann Larrivée • Developer, consultant & manager at FooLab • I specialize in project rescue • Writing a book: 10 warning signs in IT projects. Y
4. My objectives • Identify project threats early • Reduce the number of failures • Reduce stress, anxiety, headaches • More time with your family
5. Vocabulary • Objectives • Metrics • Success • Failure
6. Objectives - Signs • Stakeholders don't agree on business objectives • Goals are not communicated • Goals are not understood • Poorly defined goals
7. Objectives - Solutions • Get stakeholders to agree and sign a contract • Kickoff meeting to explain the goals • Print the goals on a poster hang them in your office • Communicate them to all team members
8. Deadline - Signs • Deadline too tight • Trying to make a project fit • Working overtime • Deadline too far
9. Deadline - Solutions • Negotiate the delivery date • Negotiate deliverables based on objectives • Prioritize features based on objectives • Get more skilled developers • Plan time for the unexpected
10. Progress - Signs • No demo within the first month • Missed demos
11. Progress - Solutions • Weekly release and demo • Request developers to give development URL • Follow the GIT commits • Yellow-flag task at 50% of completion time • Red-flag task at 75% of completion
12. Team Spirit - Signs • Pointing fingers • Poor or no collaboration • Negative attitude
13. Team Spirit - Solutions • Break negative conversations • Change the focus on solutions • Meet team members with negative attitude • Remove bad team members • Get to know your team members
14. Communication – Signs • No one ever reports problem • People provide excuses for the road blocks • People forward you to the documentation • Languages • Timezones
15. Communication – Solutions • Find the root cause • Have someone bilingual • Re adjust your schedule • Talk one on one to get the real information
16. Focus – Signs • Methodologies & Architecture • Tools and framework • Adding cool features • Last minute changes
17. Focus – Solutions • Plan time for R&D outside of your project • Do R&D before project • Focus Delivering value, not feature • How does it bring us closer to the objective?
18. Documentation – Signs • 50 pages+ novel style documentation • No documentation • No 10,000 foot view of the project • No or Poor Documentation technical and functional analysis
19. Documentation – Solutions • Plan time for analysis • Centralize all documentation in source control • Write readable code • Have good tool to write documentation and specs • Keep it straight to the point
20. Quality – Signs • The ghosts problem • Endless bugs list • No time for quality assurance • No time for performance testing
21. Quality – Solutions • Have staging and product ready env. • Determine mission critical components • Write test for mission critical components • Have QA before each demo
22. Metrics - Signs • No way to measure the expected outcome
23. Metrics - Solutions • Level of success (business) • Level of quality • Level of performance
24. Presentation take-away #1 • Situation appraisal • Objectives • Metrics • Joint accountability
25. Presentation take-away #2 • How does it bring us closer to the objective • Break your projects into smaller ones • Socialize with your co-worker • Keep calm but stay alert
26. Twitter: @ylarrivee E-mail: yann@foolab.ca Website: foolab.ca Through powerful advice, we help businesses maximize their investment and ship projects ahead of time. Questions?