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Classical Mistake

The document discusses classic mistakes made in software projects identified by Steve McConnell in his book. It originally listed 36 mistakes organized into people, process, product, and technology categories. The list was later updated to 42 mistakes based on developer/manager surveys. The top 10 mistakes identified are unrealistic expectations, weak personnel, overly optimistic schedules, wishful thinking, shortchanging quality assurance, inadequate design, lack of project sponsorship, omitting tasks from estimates, excessive multi-tasking, and lack of user involvement. These mistakes are most likely to lead to project failure if not addressed.

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Muhammad Muniruddin
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68 views10 pages

Classical Mistake

The document discusses classic mistakes made in software projects identified by Steve McConnell in his book. It originally listed 36 mistakes organized into people, process, product, and technology categories. The list was later updated to 42 mistakes based on developer/manager surveys. The top 10 mistakes identified are unrealistic expectations, weak personnel, overly optimistic schedules, wishful thinking, shortchanging quality assurance, inadequate design, lack of project sponsorship, omitting tasks from estimates, excessive multi-tasking, and lack of user involvement. These mistakes are most likely to lead to project failure if not addressed.

Uploaded by

Muhammad Muniruddin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Classical Mistake,

Problems in
Software Projects
Software Project Management
• …the only difference between experienced and
inexperienced developers is that the experienced ones
realize when they’re making mistakes.

Classic Mistakes
Steve McConnell
McConnell originally created a list in 1996 for his book
Rapid Development (still one of the best books on
managing software development). The original list of 36
mistakes was updated in 2008 to a total of 42 common
mistakes based on a survey of more than 500 developers
and managers

People-Related Process-Related Product-Related Technology-


Mistakes Mistakes Mistakes Related Mistakes
13 14 5 4

36- Classical Mistake


• 1. Undermined motivation
• 2. Weak personnel
• 3. Uncontrolled problem employees
• 4. Heroics (irresponsibilities)
• 5. Adding people to a late project
• 6. Noisy, crowded offices
• 7. Friction between developers and customers
• 8. Unrealistic expectations
• 9. Lack of effective project sponsorship
• 10. Lack of stakeholder buy-in
• 11. Lack of user input
• 12. Politics placed over substance
• 13. Wishful thinking

People-Related Mistakes
• 14. Overly optimistic schedules 16. Insufficient risk management
• 17. Contractor failure Insufficient planning
• 18. Abandonment of planning under pressure
• 19. Wasted time during the fuzzy front end
• 20. Shortchanged upstream activities
• 21. Inadequate design
• 22. Shortchanged quality assurance
• 23. Insufficient management controls
• 24. Premature or too frequent convergence
• 25. Omitting necessary tasks from estimates
• 26. Planning to catch up later
• 27. Code-like-hell programming

Process-Related Mistakes
• 28. Requirements gold-plating 29. Feature creep
• 30. Developer gold-plating
• 31. Push me, pull me negotiation
• 32. Research-oriented development

Product-Related Mistakes
• 33. Silver-bullet syndrome 34. Overestimated savings
from new tools or methods
• 35. Switching tools in the middle of a project
• 36. Lack of automated source-code control

Technology-Related Mistakes
• McConnell originally created a list in 1996 for his book
Rapid Development (still one of the best books on
managing software development). The original list of 36
mistakes was updated in 2008 to a total of 42 common
mistakes based on a survey of more than 500 developers
and managers
• A list of common basic mistakes in developing software
and in managing development work, mistakes that are
made so often, by so many people, that we all need to be
aware of them.

10-Classic Mistakes
The mistakes that have the highest impact, the mistakes that will
most likely led to failure, are:
1. Unrealistic expectations
2. Weak personnel
3. Overly optimistic schedules
4. Wishful thinking
5. Shortchanged QA
6. Inadequate design
7. Lack of effective project sponsorship
8. Omitting necessary tasks from estimates
9. Excessive multi-tasking
10. Lack of user involvement

10-Classic Mistakes

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