Software Project Secrets

Software Project Secrets is the first book to analyze and address the problems that project management?s best practices cause in software development projects. It shows how to integrate agile methodologies with project management to resolve these problems.

The book is aimed at managers, developers and customers who use industry standard methodologies, but whose projects still struggle to succeed. In 2000, only 28% of software projects succeeded outright. 23% were cancelled, and the remainders were substantially late and over budget. (In contrast, 94% of construction projects succeed.) No-one has yet found a satisfactory explanation for why so many software projects fail so badly.

The author analyzes a factor that has so far been overlooked?the project management methodology itself?to find out how it might create problems for software development projects. His experience has shown him that project management processes often take priority over software development best practices.

The book begins by describing twelve ways in which software projects are different from other kinds of projects. It then analyses the Project Management Body Of Knowledge to discover ten hidden assumptions that are not valid in the context of software projects. It describes the problems caused by these invalid assumptions.

One solution is to integrate project management with methodologies that do work for software development: the agile methodologies. The book describes and compares three of the most significant and widely-used agile methodologies: Crystal, Extreme Programming and the Rational Unified Process. It suggests new ways to combine these methodologies with project management to ensure that the best aspects of both are retained.