Problems are a normal part of any project. For example, working in different time zones might make it hard to communicate, or jobs that were not planned for could come up and change your original plan. These things can be dealt with most of the time, but sometimes they’re big enough to ruin a project and cost you time, money, your image, or even your business.
For that reason, how can you avoid that?
If you want to know why some software projects fail, read this piece. It will also show you how to lower your risks. First, let’s talk about what it means for a software project to fail.
When is a project considered a failure?
Failure of a project occurs when it must be discontinued before its release or after it’s already on the market. Software projects may fail for various reasons ranging from lack of resources to bad management practices. Most of the time, they fit into one of these groups:
- Time.
Delays in a project can have a big effect on your relationships with people who are looking for results and profits. The market can also change over time.
- Cost.
Unexpected problems will come up with every job, and sometimes they will need extra money to fix. If you can’t afford to put more money into the project, you have to either stop it or put it on hold until things get better.
- Quality.
A service or product can be put on the market, but what if it’s not good? It’s well known that Samsung phone batteries can get too hot. The main points are shown below.
- Use and market fit.
People won’t pay for your answer if it doesn’t work or if they don’t understand how to use it.
Failure is often caused by multiple contributing factors. When your team doesn’t have enough time or resources, for instance, they might cut corners which compromise quality; or trying to cut costs during research can result in products which don’t fit with market needs as intended.
Software project failure examples
Failed software project case studies can teach us a lot about what goes wrong with a project. These are some big ones.
The National Health Service (NHS) IT system project failure
It’s never a good idea to rush, and this is especially true for big projects with a lot of duty. The UK’s National Program for IT, for example, wanted to change the way the country kept track of patient health records. The government didn’t think the needs would be as great as they were, which put them on a tight plan that they couldn’t meet from the start. The mess cost the government about £10 billion.
Exploding Samsung batteries
Samsung possibly went through the worst crisis in its history in 2016. When Samsung launched the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 in August, it was hailed as a much-anticipated new “big phone.” However, users started posting on social media in September about how the batteries overheated and exploded.
Samsung decided to stop making the whole line of products and called back about 2.5 million phones.
Toyota vehicle malfunctions
Toyota’s iconic project failure stemmed from issues with Lexus clutches. Cars were going faster without anyone pressing on the gas pedal due to an issue in how memory was managed by Toyota’s system and this forced them to pay a $32.4 million fine and recall millions of cars within just weeks.
You can see that going over price isn’t the only thing that can happen when a project fails. Businesses could lose their good name and even put their users’ lives in danger.
A poll of 3,234 people who work in project management found that 14% of projects failed. We will explore why software projects fail in more depth and what you can do to mitigate risk.
Top reasons software projects fail and how to ensure they succeed
How could a software project fail? Here are some issues and solutions you might come across during its creation that might lead to its downfall, along with any possible impacts they could have.
Problem #1: Unclear software project goals
About 37% of projects fail because the goals are not clear. It’s hard to tell when your job isn’t going the way you want it to if you don’t know what you want to achieve.
Solution: Make sure you can measure the progress of your software project.
About 37% of projects fail because the goals are not clear. It’s hard to tell when your job isn’t going the way you want it to if you don’t know what you want to achieve.
Problem #2: Unrealistic expectations
Dream big! But make sure your goals align with what users require of you – don’t give in to pressure from stakeholders or think you can accomplish more than you actually can!
Bosses who set unrealistic goals risk setting unrealistic expectations that cause workers to rush through tasks, make poor choices, or take short cuts in order to meet them.
Solution: Check your thoughts first. Before you spend money on your idea, you can run a focus group to see how the people you want to reach will react to it.
Of course, you should talk to people all the time. Talking to staff, partners, and experts in the field will help you make a smart choice.
Problem #3: Vague software project scope
Overconfidence and vague goals can also make it hard to describe a software project plan, which is also called a project scope. An outline of all tasks and resources required for completion of a project constitutes its scope.
Without a clear scope, it will be impossible for you to set reasonable goals, create an effective team with all necessary skills, or distribute jobs at the appropriate times. Therefore it should come as no surprise that 39% of software projects fail due to ineffective planning from their owners.
Without a clear project scope in mind, it can be challenging to know exactly what tasks need to be performed next and who is accountable for what. Without an estimate of costs, time, or resources for software projects it becomes even harder. Let’s look more closely at each issue.
- Wrong estimate of how much a software job will cost. Since you only have so many resources, making wrong cost estimates can really hurt the quality of the work you turn in. Or as we mentioned previously, sometimes there simply isn’t enough money available to complete a task and must put it off until another time.
- Wrong estimate of time. Software cost estimations that are off, deadlines that get postponed, significant changes to the project scope, teamwork issues or lacking sufficient resources may all lead to delays and cause projects to go overtime. All of these things make it take longer to get your product to market, which costs you users and makes stakeholders unhappy.
- Unexpected gaps in resources. It’s not easy to divide up resources. But it’s easy to miss problems that come up out of the blue, like when several workers get sick at the same time or an old system stops working.
Solution: Make plans ahead of time.
It’s common sense to say “plan ahead,” but it’s not always easy to do. Here are some ideas for making a project plan that you can handle:
- Set goals for prices, resources, and time frames. First, make a list of the people, software, and hardware that you will need to complete the job. Then, make a list of milestones, break each one down into tasks, and give each one a team member and any other tools that will help them reach it. This makes a big plan that you can use to figure out how much the job will cost.
- Make use of a project control tool. Project management tools help you get a better idea of how long tasks will take, how to best use the resources you have for the project, and even how much they will cost. You can speed up tasks that you do over and over, see how tasks depend on each other, keep track of project data, and more.
- If you don’t have the right people in-house, hire a specialized team. A trustworthy partner will have a lot of knowledge that they can share. They will tell you the best way to go whether they use bottom-up software project estimate or reverse analysis.
Problem #4: Software project documentation that wasn’t put together properly
Documentation is an important part of planning a software project. It makes the project run more smoothly by collecting all the things that are needed for the software project, like user guides and software requirements specification papers. It’s hard to know what your service does and doesn’t cover and make sure your team’s work meets the client’s standards without proper software project documentation. Good project paperwork also makes sure that the team is committed to delivering the work.
Solution: Centralize and streamline the process.
For full project documentation management, use a central repository and document management tools. It’s much better to have this than having files spread out in Excel sheets, email lines, and chat messages.
Also, as the project goes on, many changes will need to be made, and you can’t do that without automation tools. It makes keeping track of the past of document versions real-time and perfect. You might want to use document management software that lets you easily bring in, store, share, send out, and protect any kind of document. This will keep your team and everyone else involved in the project updated and linked.
Problem #5: The software project team doesn’t communicate well
When people don’t talk to each other, especially when things are at stake, it can make an already difficult job even harder and cause disappointing results.
Solution: Get the right tech and society together.
Good teams build on each other’s skills and work together to solve problems, as shown by cases of successful software projects. You can make sure that teamwork goes smoothly by using a software development project management method that encourages openness and cooperation.
You should make sure that everyone on the team can see the big picture and knows what their role is in the project. This will keep them interested and motivated. Also, active listening is important because everyone wants to be heard. Last, make sure you have the right tools for file sharing, videoconferencing, online chat, and project management.
If you need help getting started with PM, you can always give your job to a web development partner who has a clear and well-established workflow. This piece will go on to talk about how to pick one.
Problem #6: Risks that were not expected
Unseen risks can slow down or stop a project from going as planned, cause costs to go up, or put the project’s success at risk in some other way. Chances and risks that aren’t clear cause 27% of projects to fail. You can’t know what will happen, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Answer: Take charge.
Risk management helps you see problems coming before they happen and seize chances as they come up. This is how good risk control looks:
- At the start, make a list of all the possible risks.
- Tell a client or other important person about these risks so that you don’t overwhelm them later.
- Think about what each risk is, how it might affect your project, and how likely it is to happen.
- Put the chances first.
- Figure out what you can do to make each risk less likely to happen.
- Create ways to avoid problems.
- Plan what you’ll do if a risk comes true.
Don’t be surprised by risks; they can quickly turn into disasters. Bear in mind the Toyota case once more. This is not at all what your buyers want from you.
How to achieve software project success
If you want to be successful, you should be told first. It makes sense to think about all the problems that could happen during the software development process and plan for them.
The goals of the software project should be clear to everyone on the team working on it. This will help you make a sensible project scope, stick to the schedule and budget, and make sure that resources are used correctly. Finally, don’t forget how important it is to work together, both within the company and with outside partners.
Also, don’t forget to think about working with an experienced software development business. Because we only care about getting results, you can be sure you’re making the right choice to make sure the project goes well.
How to choose a software development agency
There are many things that can be used to choose an outsourcing partner, such as the company’s culture, its knowledge of the industry, its tech stacks, and the way it works with and charges for services. To get you started, here are some good tips:
Check to see how eager the company is to understand what your business needs. Your partners should know what your business needs because that’s the only way to be sure of accurate quotes. Also, they should make it clear what standards they are willing to meet and how they will do it.
For your job candidates, ask them what way of software development they would use. Builders love agile methods like Scrum and Kanban because they can be used on almost any job. But each job is unique. When you want to send things all the time, Kanban is better. Because it works in sprints, Scrum can help you get your product to market faster.
Check out the service for talking to people. How will a business let you know about changes? How often are they going to call you? You should always know about all the changes that have been made. A trustworthy partner will always keep you up to date, be honest about possible problems, and not make empty promises.
Don’t forget these tips; they will help you find the best partner and make your product or service stand out in the market.
Final thoughts
The world would be a lot easier if everything went as planned all the time. As every project manager knows, things don’t work out like they should, and problems are sure to happen.
We hope that this piece has helped you think about the chances that a project will fail and given you ideas for how to make your software development project management workflow better. Let us help you if you need a partner in software development with a lot of knowledge.
Get in touch with Softrobo to find out more about the benefits of our software development services and to talk about the specifics of your project!
