Designing and managing a successful project is one of the outstanding problems of modern organizations. Here are some concrete ideas and practices that may help you create a successful solution to a problem, or help you do so more quickly or more easily. Everything here is well established from many experiences. Nothing here is my bright new clever idea, or a a fad, or academic.

I encountered most of these ideas in computer software engineering, but they may also apply to other technical projects such as designing a new airplane, a bar of soap, or teaching materials. It's not for businesses presenting individual human performances, such as a theatrical company or a baseball team. It's not for running an established business; it is to create new solutions to new problems and situations.

This article is written using some of the jargon of computer software development. You may be more comfortable using "suppliers" or "producers" in place of "developers," "customers" or "sponsors" in place of "clients," "proposal" or "ideas" in place of "design," and "product" or "deliverable" in place of "system."

Key ideas for success are iterative prototyping, and verification. Iterative prototyping is a sequence of development and testing, each stage benefitting from what was learned before. Verification is proof through testing that the solution achieves the desired results.

To succeed you must test the new system during development, with actual users, to make discover what the users really want, to find parts that do not work well and fix them, and to make sure it provides the services wanted.

Plan on redoing the system to correct faults and to improve the system based on what you have learned in testing. Plan on proving that you have achieved the goal. Do not assume that bright new ideas will work the first time, if ever. Assume they will not work the first time, and maybe not the second.

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked ... A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system. - J. Gall

Nothing is so essential, and beneficial, as good leadership and really talented staff. If you lack that, expect mediocrity.

Organization doesn't really accomplish anything. Plans don't accomplish anything, either. Theories of management don't much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds. - Colin Powell

And don't forget the Wier-Berra Principle:

Sometimes better is no good.

Go on to -

A Ten Step Path for Developing a Successful Project

Some More Good Practices to Help Ensure Success

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Resources

The Spiral Model

The Spiral Model of Software Development and Enhancement, B. Boehm, IEEE Computer, May 1988, pp. 61-72.     Click here for the Spiral Diagram

As a project develops, a spiral path is traced on the diagram. Angular position on the spiral indicates the stage of development, cycling through requirements definitions, considerations of alternatives, constraints and risks, building a prototype or enhancement to a prototype, testing and evaluation, and restatement of improved requirements. Distance out from the center indicates a maturing project and use of time and other resources. (The diagram is for conceptual purposes, not a worksheet to fill in.)

Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned, ... What Does and Does Not Work, Thomas Ricks, The Wall Street Journal, May 23, 1997, page 1.

"... the Army's lessons-learned process is a major reason the Army has been successfully rebuilt in the past 20 years. The process also explains why the Army, after being clobbered in the first big battle of almost every previous war, didn't suffer that fate in Desert Storm."

" `The Army has perfected a remarkably efficient process for correcting its mistakes and sustaining its successes,' concludes a recent case study by the Harvard Business School whose video on the system has grossed $289,000."

"David Garvin, who wrote the Harvard study, says the process may apply best to companies that conduct repeatable but slightly different activities, such as upgrading software."

"Prof. Garvin says any corporation can adapt this process to collect information, compile lessons and disseminate them. `The key is to understand that no project is complete until it is systematically reviewed and its lessons learned.' "

See also Building a Learning Organization, David Garvin, Harvard Business Review, August 1993, pp. 78 - 90.

The Mythical Man-Month

The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Frederick Brooks, 1975, enlarged edition 1995; Addison-Wesley.

"...adding more workers to a late project makes it later."

If you are involved in a software development project, especially one with more than a very few persons, you probably know about this book. What other software management project book has been in print 31 years?

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More Reading

"Iterative and Incremental Development (IID), Part 2", Robert C. Martin, C++ Report, April 1999.

How Systems Really Work and How They Fail, 2nd ed., J. Gall, The General Systematics Press, 1986.

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Reviews

Dave Farthing: "Your article is really useful as it boils down the main principles of project management into a single document."

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Copyright © 1997, 2002, 2011 S. K. Wier.
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Initial version April 1997. This revision April 3, 2011.

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