Most software projects fail... Data Helper's software projects succeed.
There are several things that a project needs to have in order to reach a
happy conclusion:
- Direct involvement of the customer, at both the management and end-user levels.
Data Helper keeps the customer informed of the project's status and the direction the
project is taking.
- A detailed, accurate Requirements Analysis. Before work can start on a project,
the team must know what the end result must do. Data Helper works with the customer to
document the needs and wants of the users of the product. The requirements are presented as
a menu of choices, with a discussion of the risks and benefits of each choice.
- A Statement of Work. This is the "order" selected from the "menu" of the Requirements
Analysis. It states the scope of the project. This may or may not be a legal contract,
but it is treated as the contract governing what will be built.
- A Project Plan. The Project Plan states how the requirements in the Statement of
Work will be fulfilled. It defines the roles of all the members of the project team
(both Data Helper consultants and your "domain experts"). It also lays out the steps
that will be taken to ensure that the final product meets the requirements and is free
of defects.
- Appropriate Project Management. Projects of different sizes need different levels
of management. If a project is to take one week, it doesn't make sense to spend three
weeks documenting the project plan. All of the steps of a properly run project must be
taken on all projects, but the amount of paper produced will depend of the size of the
project. In the one-week project, for instance, the Requirements Analysis, Statement
of Work, and Project Plan may be combined into a one or two page document.
At Data Helper, we produce solid, maintainable, and appropriate systems for you.
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