Active risk management in IT projects
First, my apologies for the slow posting here and at brucefwebster.com over the past few months. It’s pretty bad when my last two posts have each covered my last two Baseline columns. But I’ve got some...
View ArticleHanging on to your IT staff
I’ve written previously about the “Dead Sea effect“, in which your best IT engineers and managers leave over time, leaving behind an IT staff that is slowly becoming less competent and effective....
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Five books every IT manager should read…right now
My latest Baseline column is up, and it talks about why you should read these five books now, if you haven’t already…and if you have read them, you should probably re-read them. ..bruce..
View ArticleCoping with the economic downturn
[Cross-posted from brucefwebster.com] I’m currently writing a series of columns for Baseline on how to deal with frozen or reduced IT budgets due to the current economic troubles. Here are the first...
View ArticleFireflies, conveyor belts, and landfill
My newest Baseline column is up, and in it, I talk about technology lifecycles that can cause you grief: Each technology is on its own product lifecycle, which may or may not match with your...
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The Sessions paper — an analytical critique
[cross-posted from brucefwebster.com] Roger Sessions has published a white paper, “The IT Complexity Crisis: Danger and Opportunity” (PDF). It’s created a bit of a stir in tech circles, largely because...
View ArticleReadings in Software Engineering (RISE): a new series of posts
I have been collecting and reading books on software engineering since the 1970s, but I have found over the decades that the vast majority of programmers (and their managers) are unfamiliar with most...
View ArticleRISE: The Psychology of Computer Programming (Gerald M. Weinberg, 1971/1998)
[The first of a planned series of posts on "Readings in Software Engineering"] [Version 1.1 of this post, revised/extended on 05/22/2012] The Psychology of Computer Programming, Gerald M. Weinberg, Van...
View ArticleRISE: The Mythical Man-Month (Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., 1975/1995)
[The second in a series of posts on Readings in Software Engineering. Previous post: The Psychology of Computer Programming, Gerald M. Weinberg (1971/1998)] The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software...
View ArticleWeighing in on Project Orca
Cross posted from And Still I Persist] [Note: I am currently in transit from Colorado to Florida and am composing this post as I have time and 'net access.] “All the most important mistakes are made on...
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Why is software project estimation so often wrong?
Thanks to Michael Swain (via a Facebook post), I ran across this explanation of why software projects are so often underestimated: Let’s take a hike on the coast from San Francisco to Los Angeles to...
View ArticleRISE: Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams (DeMarco & Lister, 1987)
[The third in a series of posts on Readings in Software Engineering. Previous post: The Mythical Man-Month, Frederick J. Brooks Jr. (1975/1995).] Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams. Tom DeMarco...
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More IT failure news from England
The British government has spent roughly half a billion pounds ($750M) developing a new IT system for its welfare services, with the goal of cutting down on fraud and loss. The project, by all...
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$1 billion example of the Thermocline of Truth
In a post here last week, I made reference to what I call “the thermocline of truth.” The basic idea is simple: those in the trenches of a large project know how badly it’s going, while those at the...
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What is it with DMV projects?
It seems that each year brings another story about a failed or very troubled IT project attempting to replace or re-engineer the computer systems for some state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. The...
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Possible £200 million writeoff for Universal Credit — septic code problem?
I wrote last week about problems with the UK Government’s Universal Credit project, an attempt to do a system-wide replacement and re-engineering of IT systems for the Department for Work and Pension....
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£10 billion ($16 billion) IT failure — yep, it’s the UK again
It can be hard to imagine that you can spend billions of dollars (or, worse yet, pounds) on IT systems without having much to show for it, but, yes, it has happened again: An abandoned NHS patient...
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UK Universal Credit project — complete write-off of code?
I’ve written twice before (here and here) about the severe problems with the British government’s Universal Credit project. From my first post: The British government has spent roughly half a billion...
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Post-mortem of large IT failure in Scotland
I am currently teaching CS 428 (“Software Engineering”) at BYU this semester, and my students just finished their midterm a week ago. Most of the questions on the test posed a hypothetical situation...
View ArticleIT Snapshot: Chapter 1 of “The Mythical Man-Month”
Over forty years of working in information technology (IT) have taught me how few people have ever actually read some of the most important books in software engineering and IT project management. I...
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