11 Reasons Software Projects Fail And How To Avoid Them

Let’s start with one of the fastest ways for a well-intentioned idea to quickly crash and burn - proceeding with absolutely no direction.

You might have a seed of inspiration, but if there’s no real application for it or it doesn’t solve an inherent problem for an organization or end user, it will quickly devolve into an exercise of spinning wheels.

To avoid wasting your resources on something that has little life beyond the one inside your head, perform some due diligence.

Does developing the idea answer a fundamental question within a specific business?

Does it address particular challenges and create efficiencies where none previously existed?

Does it add value to a brand or industry with functionality or marketability?

Answering these questions first will help you determine if your vision has a future.

This particular shortcoming of project management can manifest itself in a number of ways.

Do you have a team that is too large, creating unnecessary bureaucracy? Is your team understaffed, with too much work and too few to handle it?

Is the group collectively inexperienced, and your focus is too much on training than it is on developing?

Is the team getting along, or are there too many clashing personalities and not enough collaboration?

Whatever the faults, a poorly chosen team will unnecessarily sabotage the quality of the final product, if it even lasts long enough to reach its latter stages. To set yourself up for the most favorable outcome, choose individuals that have the necessary technical skills and the right temperament to work as part of a team.

Further, don’t overburden your group with more than it can manage and ensure everyone has a specific role to play. The sooner your team gels, the sooner you’ll start seeing positive output.

Being a great project manager (which explore in more detail later) means having a laser-like focus on the task at hand. It can also result in putting on blinders and ignoring suggestions or disregarding tools that might prove helpful in finder a more efficient path over the long term.

Certainly, the next idea isn’t always the best idea but structuring your project in a manner that stamps out flexibility will almost certainly lead to dead ends and lack of innovation. In other words, don’t be impervious to change and make sure no one in your group is either.

This concept applies to your team members as well. Those that bristle at suggestions or criticism may harm the unity of a team by working against a necessity to be adaptable to change.

Set your goals, yes, but foster an environment where anyone on the team can make recommendations, problems can be quickly solved, or you can easily incorporate a change in outside influences into your final deliverables.

Two weeks early, under budget, and a piece of technical mastery that will change the world. Certainly, you’ve at least come in under budget a few times.

Sure, the above software development trifecta is every client's dream, but the reality is far from dreamy. Few things create friction like a client making unreasonable demands of a project team, and the group being unable to deliver.

Instead, be honest about your capabilities. If a client makes a specific request, but you’re uncertain of what’s genuinely possible in a fixed amount of time with equally set funding, make it known. Don’t agree to any terms until you understand the demands and if they are achievable.

Many of your clients will have grand ambitions. It's wonderful they are looking to you to deliver on them. Don't get caught in the lure of trying to pull off a miracle.

Avoiding one of the most common traps in development - overpromise and underdeliver - is simple. Be honest about what's achievable and what it would take to do even more.

You may well, in fact, have the next great whatchamacallit on your hands, but if it misses the mark on what the end user needs or wants, they’ll be calling it a failure.

Even with a brilliant team of developers on your side, they may be unable to grasp key flashpoints that could make or break the final design and usability of the program (recall that we already noted what happens when you have blinders on).

Don’t disregard the input from those that stand to benefit most from your project - the people who will be using it. Openly seek it out. Soliciting user input from the word “go” will ensure you maintain a clear idea throughout the development process of the software's use and how it can perform best.

If you're struggling with a current development project, we can help. Check out more about ClearSummit and our services.

Finally, let’s look at the setup for a hypothetical project.

The concept is genius, clearly a winner for the client and the developer.

Programmers, engineers, and coders are at the height of their game.

There’s buy-in from top to bottom and side to side. And, even without a project manager to oversee the plan, everyone is jacked with the promise of brisk and free-flowing ideas and communication.

Yet, the project still has a very good chance of failing. Why?

Perhaps its missing proper time management. Or responsible budgetary oversight. Imagine the consequences should either suffer from mismanagement. Not just a dreadful combination for losing a current contract, it can prove costly towards future business. Who in the above scenario is equipped to handle that?

A project manager, of course.

Without the single most crucial aspect of any development team - the leader - to pull these disparate pieces together, the project has no focus, no equilibrium, no future.

A good manager is not necessarily adept at the skills necessary to execute the demands of a project. They do however possess the acumen to give voice to reason, motivate effectively, keep everyone focused and on task, and driving them towards the same goal.

A great project leader raises the quality of the team they serve, even if that team is average. Without that guiding presence, however, even the best of groups will struggle to succeed.