SOFTWARE PROJECT EXCELLENCETATHAGAT VARMA KNOWLEDGEPRENEUR HTTP://THOUGHTLEADERSHIP.IN

A $7 Billion Disaster… doesn’t happen by accident!

http://youtu.be/0_O5bcq1dBw

When failures are routine… Success seems like an exception!

Failed19%

Challenged52%

Successful29%

CHAOS Report 2015 studied 50,000 projects, https://www.infoq.com/articles/standish-chaos-2015

Overruns are normal… and might perhaps be sign of life, after all!

http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/business-technology/our-insights/delivering-large-scale-it-projects-on-time-on-budget-and-on-value

Happily struggling. At least since 1994 :)

CHAOS Report Data, 1994-2015

How does a project get to be a year late?

Fred Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month, 1975

…One day at a time!

Projects die slow death… Day-to-day decline is often invisible!

“…When one hears of disastrous schedule slippage in a project, he imagines that a series of major calamities must have befallen it. Usually, however, the disaster is due to termites, not tornadoes; and the schedule has slipped imperceptibly but inexorably.”

Fred Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month, 1975

Imagine a project… Pretty much anything can be seen as one!

Scope: whatever you can

implement

Time: whenever you are ready

Cost: whatever it costs

Iron Triangle of PM Constraints facilitate success criteria!

Cost

Time

Scop

e

Holy Grail of Software Faster, Better, Cheaper

Increase ScopeDecrease TimeDecrease Cost

Reality…? You can choose only two at a time!

Increase Scope

Keep time fixed => Costs Go Up!

Keep cost fixed => Time Goes Up!

Decrease Time

Keep Scope fixed => Costs Go Up!

Keep Cost fixed => Scope Must Come Down!

Decrease Cost

Keep Scope fixed => Time Goes Up!

Keep Time fixed => Scope Must Come Down!

Case Study: Delhi Metro Modern day wonder…from India!

https://youtu.be/eYLQbPaQpnM

Delhi Metro Timeline and Achievements

1995: Planning began

1998: Construction started

2002: First trains ran

2016: 2.6m passengers a day

2021: To carry 6m passengers a day. Will be bigger than London Metro

Credentials:

Every stage completed on time, within budget

99.97% trains arrive within a minute of schedule

They are clean, cool and safe

It is profitable!

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/delhis-metro-success-a-lesson-for-australia-20130401-2h2w8.html

Case Study: MedtronicTimeline

1949: $8 revenue in first month of operation!

1962: Revenue $500,000. Losses $144,000. On the edge of bankruptcy

1963: Revenue $985,000. Profits $73,000.

1980-90s: Enjoyed 18%+ y-o-y growth

1989: 2 year old products accounted for 40% revenues, up from 14% just 6 years back

Company

53,000 Patents

Employees with good ideas given $50k initial funding

More than 2/3rd revenue come from products introduced in last two years

http://www.medtronic.com.au/about-medtronic/our-story/index.htm

Medtronic The original Roadmap

The Art of Business: In the Footsteps of Giants - Raymond Tzuu Yeh, et all

Reinventing MedtronicIncreased R&D budget from 9% to 12%

Initiated 12 radical innovations that challenged traditional businesses

Organised around small venture units, incubating them separately (and far away) from existing businesses, with full support from execs.

Had independent budgets and greater freedom to deploy these “small bets”

Examples:

reinvention of mainstream coronary artery bypass surgery. Now accounts for 20% of heart surgeries!

Super low-cost pacemaker that reduced production costs by 80%. but never became a big seller, but its ideas led to 40% cost reduction across the product lines.

https://hbr.org/2012/11/this-article-led-to-10-years-of-growth

15 Keys to R&D Success Art Colins, 2016

1. While organizational structure and process count, creative and motivated people ultimately make the difference.

2. The popular concept of “Too Big Too Fail” that has been used to describe some mega banks can be modified to read “Too Big Will Fail” for most R&D organizations.

3. Beware of excess layers of bureaucracy and unnecessary meetings—if an activity or structure adds value, streamline it; if not, get rid of it.

4. Listen to your customer, and ALWAYS clearly define what problem you are solving for BEFORE commencing any R&D project.

5. Only invent what is required: greater invention (both amount and magnitude) = greater complexity and risk.

http://acorn-advisors.com/fifteen-keys-to-research-and-development-success/

6. Since every new product has a defined life cycle and endpoint, time to market is critical for overall success.

7. Include early input from those who will eventually bring the product to market (e.g., clinical & regulatory, manufacturing & distribution, marketing & sales, etc.).

8. Clearly define objectives, assign authority and responsibility for key activities and decision-making, and always focus on the critical path items.

9. Be aggressively realistic with schedules—create a sense of urgency, but remember that “all green lights” scenarios hardly ever happen.

10.Don’t be afraid to go outside for expertise if it is needed, continually guarding against the “not invented here” syndrome.

11.Killing a project that will never be successful does not equate to failure; R&D teams should be rewarded rather than punished if they recommend this course of action.

12.Attempting too many projects at once generally ensures that none of the projects will be successfully concluded.

13.Encourage people to attack ideas, but never each other—this is very easy to say, but hard to put into practice.

14.ALWAYS comply with existing laws and regulatory requirements, and NEVER sacrifice safety.

15.Don’t forget to celebrate individual and team victories (both large and small) as they occur—and while you should take what you do very seriously, don’t take yourself too seriously!

Any hope for software ?

Success FactorsExecutive Sponsorship

Emotional MaturityUser Involvement

OptimizationSkilled Resources

Standard ArchitectureAgile Process

Modest ExecutionProject Management Expertize

Clear Business Objectives 4%5%6%7%8%10%15%15%15%15%

CHAOS Report 2015, https://www.infoq.com/articles/standish-chaos-2015

Waterfall vs. Agile

15%

30%

45%

60%

Waterfall Agile

18%

3%

27%

7%

58%

44%

Small Size Projects Medium Size Projects Large Size Projects

Agile Manifesto, 2001

agilemanifesto.org

Benefits from Agile

VersionOne 10th State of Agile Report, 2016

RecapProjects are vehicles of progress. The higher the risk, the larger its impact. However, high risk often invites failures!

However, projects by themselves are fairly useless! It is the people who plan, execute and deliver them.

In software, agile has better success rate than traditional waterfall-driven methods.

Agile is more of mindset and culture than method, process and tools

ReferencesThe Mythical Man-Month - Fred Brooks

Interview: Jim Johnson of the Standish Group, https://www.infoq.com/articles/Interview-Johnson-Standish-CHAOS

Standish Group 2015 Chaos Report - Q&A with Jennifer Lynch, https://www.infoq.com/articles/standish-chaos-2015

The Idea that Led to 10 Years of Double-Digit Growth, https://hbr.org/2012/11/this-article-led-to-10-years-of-growth