Success

The purpose of this paper is to present a few plausible answers to the incommodious question confronted by organizations today – how to forecast and evaluate success for the time and money invested in software development projects. A considerable percentage of organizational resources and operating costs is used up by software development projects today, and accordingly, it is utmost important to ensure the Return on Investment from such projects.

Regrettably, most of the organizations haven’t so far devised any method or technique that would be helpful in forecasting the success of such projects and thus justify the huge investments being made. This paper discusses what various scholars have concluded regarding the criteria for software development project success, considering the two aspects– Successful Project Execution and Product Acceptance by the market.

On the basis of the studies reviewed, recommendations have been made which will facilitate the organizations to model their systems to successfully provide solutions of the business problem confronted by the software development projects. Successful IT Project Implementation Introduction Gartner had predicted that by 2006, total investments in software development projects would exceed $2600 Billion US globally.

For the large majority of organizations, investments made in software development projects is one of the largest, however the previous record of software development projects points out considerable challenges in successfully achieving a return on investment on many of such projects.

The present paper reviews success in software development projects from a scholastic and industry’s viewpoint, reviewing the literature to present a picture of the current state as found in the Standish Group Chaos surveys conducted from 1994 to 2003, then examining various models deployed by the present day industry for evaluating and forecasting software development projects and market acceptability of the product developed primarily on the basis of the works of Delone & McLean, complemented by the review of works of many other scholars.

In the final section, recommendations have been made which can be helpful to the management in categorizing the projects, which are more likely to succeed and provide changes to be made in the course of action to increase the chances of success for the overall system. The Present State – Software Development Projects Measured As per the findings of the Standish Group in their Chaos Surveys that are carried out every two years, software development projects have a miserable record with below thirty percent of projects actually meeting their set objectives.

Software Development Project Success 1994-2000 The above figure has been based upon data collected over a period of eight years from over thirty thousand software development projects. A successful project is the one that met all its objectives, failed project has been classified as a project that was terminated before any yield was obtained from it and the third category-challenged projects are those which met only some of the set objectives and were only partially successful.

Considering the dismal picture portrayed by the above findings, nobody will prefer to make any investments in such projects considering their low success rate. What makes situation grimmer for certain organizations is that their business models are totally dependent on success of their software development projects. As a matter of fact, it becomes a question of survival for such organizations. Therefore, these projects must succeed for the prosperity and survival of the organization. This creates an anxiety and stress on software development project implementations to achieve success in wake of adverse scenarios.

In view of such critical situations, it is highly essential for the software development stakeholders and project implementation teams to understand how the project success is defined. What are the parameters to be achieved, in what time frame these are to be achieved, what are the costs involved and the expected yield from the project. Success Criteria To define success in software development projects, different authors have presented their own definitions and success parameters. However, a detailed analysis of their works provides a common platform where one can judge the success of these projects.

Broadly speaking, the success has to be measured in two areas- successes at implementation level and market acceptability of the product developed. Project Implementation This success criterion is an evaluation of the efficiency of the organizations’ procedures, methods or practices for implementing new software development projects. This begins with system design at the developers’ end and ends at product deployment at the user level. It encompasses all the project interrelated actions to ensure – Timely completion of the project – Project completion within assigned budget

– Final products meets all the targeted features from users’ point of view – Quality standards are adhered to as per specifications. Rob Thomsett (2002) in his works lists seven criteria, which are highly important and organizations need to achieve a balance among them when executing and administering such projects. These seven criteria broadly provide a framework for establishing and implementing a software development project. Thomsett Sliders Organizations need to evaluate these seven essentials and settle on what is more important as compared to the other criteria and where it should be placed as compared to others.

The central point is that is that only one of the above depicted “sliders” can be at the extreme right “On” position and that will be the decisive factor for decisions and trade-offs for all the aspects of the project. For instance, in a project that requires compliance of some new governmental legislation, the Legal Requirements will be the criteria where the slider will be at “On” position where as for other parameters, the slider will be somewhere in middle or at still lower values. Thus meeting the legislative requirement will be highlighted as the top priority in the project.

Project implementation success is only one constituent of overall software development success. Considering that the project is aimed at developing a working product, the successful integration of the product with overall organizational needs and business objectives or market acceptability becomes another vital factor for the project success. Market Acceptability Market acceptability is the assessment of the worth the developed system gives to the organization, on successful completion of the development and implementation stages.

Delone & McLean (1992,2002) have provided with the most widely used software development project success model. The Delone & McLean model of software development success has been extensively accepted as an authoritative and effectual demonstration of the factors, which coalesce to fashion success in software development projects (Delone & McLean 2002). The original model that was presented in 1992, suggested many contributing associations that together deliver an Organizational Impact from the execution of a software development project.

In the revised version (Delone & McLean 2002) they have reviewed a number of researches, which have endeavored to authenticate the contributing aspect of the model and verify if the diverse factors actually follow in the succession as projected. The Original Delone & McLean Success Model The important factors as described in the earlier model that were projected to be causatively associated in the recent study are: • “System Quality – Individual Impact” • “System Use – Individual Impact” • “Information Quality – Individual Impact”

Other associations were established as statistically authenticated and the authors sum up, “Taken as a whole, these empirical studies give strong support for the proposed associations among the IS success dimensions and help to confirm the causal structure in the model. ” (P15) On the basis of the various researches carried out in the previous decade, Delone & McLean (2002) amended their previous model by clubbing individual and organizational impacts into one category called “Net Benefits”. They also added a new dimension of Service Quality and revised the model as depicted in the following figure.

The Updated Delone & McLean Success Model With respect to latest e-commerce based projects, Delone & McLean (2002) further improved the definitions of the different aspects when concentrating on the implication. For example, they defined System quality, Information quality, Service quality, Usage, User satisfaction and Net benefits specifically for projects related to e-commerce. They have considered factors such as usability, accessibility, dependability, flexibility and response time as important system qualities.

Similarly, web content quality and security issues constitute the information quality. Support provided to the customer forms the service quality, usage provides various statistics about the site, user satisfaction is the measure of how customer friendly experience the site provides and net benefits are the measures of success. Many other authors have also drawn from the Delone & McLean model and included it into their own study and extended the model with supplementary factors that are considered significant for successful execution of new software development projects.

For instance scholars like Adekoya (2005), Bokhari (2005), Bondarouk & Sikkel (2005), Chen & Chen (2004), Fisher & Howell (2004) and Sugumaran & Arogyaswamy (2003) have recognized two broad classifications of success norm, first, User Satisfaction and second Technology Acceptance. Other authors like Wixom & Todd (2005) offer a combined perspective that relates these two directions of research into a single consolidated perspective. More or less, all these scholars share a common view on certain issues such as: • “Effective technology” that is easily available and comprehensible to the intended audience

• “Sustainable system” that can be preserved and improved as the business requirements change • “Design elements” those are suitable to the intellectual and societal structure of the intended addressees • “Systems” that support the values of the targeted addressees regarding worth and effectiveness and can deliver precise, valuable and appropriate information to the correct stakeholders in an aptly appropriate manner • Practical expectations of the payback and distinctiveness of the new software development system • Genuine and substantial benefits from the execution of the software development system, including but not restricted to:

a. Better productivity b. Better Service delivery c. Better Service quality d. Higher gross revenue e. Reduced cost f. Higher profits More success factors have been identified by Segars (1998) and some of the important ones are listed here below: – There should be an alignment of objectives in the organizational strategy, software development projects and end product. – Identification of the actual business needs and strategy to achieve those – A teamwork among all the groups associated with the business towards achievement of the objectives. – Marked visible impact on the organization’s performance due to the new developments.

– The newly developed product should be able to adapt to the evolving organizational needs. All the factors discussed are in fact in agreement with the Delone & McLean model, and can be planned with the diverse constituents of the amended model with effortlessness. Based on these factors, recommendations can be worked out which can help the organizations to monitor the success of their software development projects. Project Implementation The Standish Group surveys present a robust framework for project implementation success. This framework is restructured after every survey.

(Standish Group 1998, 2001) The most recent “Chaos 10” framework classifies the following weighted issues for project implementation success: Standish Group Chaos 10 (2000) According to Yourdon (2004), software development and implementation projects are reliant on a considerable number of interrelated factors; these ten are not intended to be a all-inclusive evaluation of all the contributory elements of software development and implementation systems, but they do offer an important framework for forecasting project success, and thwarting the commencement of another “death march” project.

He further provides a complete study of a number of failed software development projects. According to him. “In many death march projects, the most serious problems were not so much technical as they are political, social, cultural and people orientated” (p147). This is same as “What has become clear . . . is that people and process have a far greater effect on project outcome than technology. ” Finally, it boils down to the people in the organization.

Behind every successful project, there is a team. They are responsible for the successful products as well. According to Highsmith , managers who are responsible for the project as well as profitability, have to ensure an environment that is favorable to project success and the project team members are give power to in reality realize success. After the project’s success, one can focus on the integration of the newly developed product into the organization’s business process.

It is only after that one can eventually accomplish plans for payback through product success thus getting a return on investment. Market/User Acceptance According to DeMarco (2004), one of the most significant suggestion that can be made regarding the integration of a new software development system into the business strategy of an organization is the concept of “slack”– time to incorporate the new techniques of doing things, and the psychological break to acclimatize to the new circumstances.

Karl Wiegers  has provided with a graphical representation of what happens when organizations employ any process enhancement initiative; initially, there is a decline in the productivity as the organization incorporates the new techniques of doing things and modifications are made in the manner the business is carried out. The Productivity Curve Apart from the initial cushion period allowed to the new software development system to become successful, it is vital that all stakeholders advance towards the product execution with mutual esteem and an understanding of the practical paybacks the product can bring.

The Delone & McLean model of software development success is a framework that has been authenticated in numerous researches and one that can be successfully applied to the execution of a new software development system. It may be noted that impractical expectations along with poor assessment are one of the most important grounds of project failure. Conclusion In this paper, a synopsis of some of the aspects that constitute success in software development projects has been carried out.

The subject has been examined from the viewpoint of both project implementation success (all the steps that are required to create a new software development system) and Market/user acceptance– the steps required to integrate the new software development system into the organization’s normal business processes. These two viewpoints are associated in such a manner that the success of the finally developed product is impossible without first achieving project implementation success. In the process, one has to take care of the concerns of two different categories of stakeholders.

For project implementation success, the studies that have been observed provide a framework, which can be used, with a prominence on the human factors in the project execution teams. The Delone & McLean model of software development system success has been scrutinized as a structure for success in the execution of the developed product; the fundamentals of this model have been authenticated as being significant for deriving the business paybacks from the new software development system.

Tesco’s success story Some of the key reasons for Tesco’s success include: Tesco has been particularly successful because of its powerful brand. It has a reputation for value, low prices and for being customer focused. Its brand equity and associations have helped the company to expand into new sectors and markets. Tesco has also been strong in public relations, advertising and building profile in catchment areas on a local level. This local approach to marketing appears to be a key driver for success. Tesco has a good range of products, including own label products.

It seeks to provide excellent customer service, and ensure high levels of customer satisfaction. The own label products have helped strengthen profits for the group, and it broad appeal through good, better, best (finest ranges) caters for the widest consumer audience. Aggressive overseas expansion has helped to keep profits high. The organisation has expanded into Eastern Europe, emerging nations such as China and South Korea and even the US, through mid market supermarkets known as, “fresh and easy”.

Its strategy of being close to the customer has been assisted in the UK specifically, when Tesco developed different formats for shopping (convenience, metro, express, superstores). It has been the best retailer for format delivery and obtaining some of the best retail positions. It gained a first mover advantage when it launched Tesco. com, which is one of the biggest and most successful online retailers. This part of the business continues to grow market share and has provided a channel to sell non-food items and other areas of the business including finance.

Information technology has revolutionized the retailer, not only in stock-control and distribution worldwide, but also in terms supplier management. It has enabled better I) retailer-manufacturer innovation ii) shorterning of decision making and greater knowledge sharing. Tesco is one of the most advanced companies in consumer understanding aided by IT (e. g. Dunhumby and Tesco Clubcard data). Consumer data has i) shaped product offerings ii) ranges iii) given Tesco a better understanding of consumer segments and shopping profiles and iv) helped marketing to build loyalty and develop promotion offerings that suit target groups.

This level of sophistication has helpedTesco to remain leader within the UK market. Suppliers are internationally sourced, and Tesco gains scale economies from its large buying volumes. This has enabled the company to keep prices down and supported its low price strategy aimed at the broad consumer market. However, the company has been criticized for its management of suppliers and clashes with the farmers union. There has been growing opposition to the supermarket because of its size, and the government (through the Monopolies and Mergers Commission) has been involved in ensuring competitive markets in the UK.

Recent acquisitions such as T;amp;S stores, have led to a high concentration, with only few dominant players within the market. The organisation has a diversified product portfolio, which includes telecommunications, finance, insurance, which provides cross and up sell opportunities to customers. Profits have been invested to support research and development, and its aggressive international expansion plans. Read more: http://www. businessteacher. org. uk/business-resources/case-study-database/tesco-case-study/#ixzz2B9gukB98

Woody Allen once said that 80 percent of success in life is just showing up. Now granted, Woody Allen also defended dating his adopted daughter by saying, “The heart wants what it wants,” so holding him up as a paragon of sound judgment may not be my best move. But if Woody is right, then I (another man whose history of poor judgment and worse choices would give a prudent person pause) would offer that the other 20 percent of success is following up.

Entrepreneurs often fail on both these counts. Showing up is more than merely putting in a physical appearance. It’s also intellectually showing up. When you show up intellectually it means you are truly listening to your customer’s needs and pain points and crafting a solution to their problems. Instead, too many solution providers come into a sales call with a solution in mind and then expend copious amounts of energy trying to convince the customer that the prefabricated solution will fit the customer’s needs. When you sell hammers, all you see is nails.

Related: 

I see a lack of follow up torpedoing more deals than a lack of showing up. Some vendors (and I admit I have been one) practically make you beg for a quote. They get busy, and I get that. They have bigger and more exciting quotes to write; I get that, too. But I have an immediate need, and if they aren’t there immediately, well, there can be only two outcomes. Either I will get someone else to do fill it; or, I will realize that my immediate need wasn’t all that immediate — or indeed, even a need. I’ve seem more deals evaporate that way than ones that collapse. In fact, I have lost more deals because of a lack of follow up than I have lost to price, to competition, or to outbreaks of the plague (an admittedly low percentage of my losses), added together.

So why do we do it? Why do we fail to follow up to be responsive to existing or potential customers? The most common excuses are:

No time.

Saying you don’t have time to follow up is ridiculous. It’s like receiving atrocious service in a restaurant and being told with a shrug, “Sorry, we’re really busy.” Being the charmer I am, I usually respond by saying “that’s the kind of problem that tends to solve itself.”

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Not following up because you are too busy resolves itself in the same way that water finds its own level. Customers who don’t want to get poor service or have inordinate wait-time go elsewhere, and you’re left with a clientele that is the appropriate size for your capacity to deliver. Not exactly a solid growth strategy. You had better hope that this clientele size matches up with your ability to make a profit or you will “too busy” yourself into bankruptcy. Not having time to follow up is akin to saying you don’t have time to be successful. You make time to be successful, and if that means biting the bullet and hiring more staff or weeding out the low performers, then that’s what you need to do.

Too much on our plates.

Having too many things on your plate may at first seem to be the exact same condition on as being too busy, but it really isn’t. How often do we find ourselves with hundreds of tasks that would take only a moment to complete, but we become so overwhelmed in the minutia that we don’t get them done? Or we tell ourselves that because it will only take a minute we don’t have to worry about it. The task gets pushed and pushed, and pretty soon the opportunity is gone. This isn’t a case of being too busy; it’s being too disorganized. This can be easily fixed either by delegating effectively, getting a highly organized assistant to nag you into getting things done, or training and discipline. But whatever you do it has to get done.

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Bottom of the pile.

Not all business opportunities are created equal and to treat a low potential or low yield opportunity the same as you would a game changing opportunity is just soft-headed. But you can’t keep stacking “higher priority” opportunities atop the less promising leads, otherwise there will never be any follow up. Instead of piling on top of the opportunity that requires follow up, delegate the opportunity to a lower level worker — it’s a great learning opportunity and you risk very little by giving it to them. Remember those who cannot be trusted to handle small projects won’t get the opportunity to handle large ones.

From sandpaper to bioelectronic ears, 3M has come a long way. 3M is a prime example of how employees can turn a dying business into a multibillion-dollar company. 3M encourages employees to create new products and explore new ideas. This management tactic allows 3M to produce over 60,000 new products each year, successfully keeping up with our constantly changing, fast-paced economy. In the last 99 years it has been in business 3M, has become a well known as a worldwide business.

Employing more than 90,000 employees, it made $19 billion in sales in the year 2000. 52% of which were made outside the USA. It has seventeen technology centers worldwide, with manufacturing sites in thirty-nine countries. 3M makes the difficulty of globalization seem like a piece of chocolate cake. 3M”s success is based on its 90,000 intrapreneurs. It recognized that employees were not merely simple workers, but talented entrepreneurs who needed only to be encouraged and appreciated.

A business can keep its entrepreneurial spirit alive by, first and foremost, encouraging its employees to be innovative. It should also provide incentives like money, raises, vacations, promotions, etc. Businesses need to show appreciation and make its employees feel like they are valuable assets to the company. Employees are a company”s gold mine. They are a company”s most important stakeholders. They can make or break a business. A business needs only to please its employees and in turn, these gold minds will gleam and become great entrepreneurs.

Though entrepreneurship is valuable, can a too diverse production cause a stumbling block for a company? If a business does not have the capital to support multiple products, it is not encourage able. Yet it should not put a total halt on new ideas and products, but create closely related products instead to begin with. 3M did not jump from sandpaper manufacturing to creating programmable disks. They started off with regular sandpaper then created environmentally safe waterproof sandpaper.

However, if a company has the capital to produce new things and support new ideas, it is highly advisable to be involved in diverse industries. A company needs to keep up with the times. Product and service demands change with time. If a company only knows one business and is not widely diverse, it has higher chances of failure. Will diverse industries prevent a corporation from having expertise in all the areas? How could it not have experts? The employees are the inventors!

After creating new ideas and products a company should always follow up on its products from production through marketing. This is very important in order to detect any signs of defects and safety issues quickly. This will also keep the company aware of how their product is doing out on the market and what they can do to improve their products. It will also give the company an insight into what the market wants. Now that we have a grasp on the importance of intrapreneuring, could 3M survive without it? I don”t know. How often do you buy sandpaper?

• You may get enrolled in the National Society of Leadership if you have high grades.
• Each university has specific requirements.
• It is worth your efforts if you like attending master classes in developing your leadership qualities.

When the clock hits 5 p.m. on Friday, your mind is supposed to transition from “work” mode to “me” mode. The switch from one extreme to the other isn’t always that simple, though. Unless you consciously choose to de-stress and relax, you’ll find it challenging to make the most of your break.

Weekend relaxation matters

in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, research shows that mentally detaching oneself from work by relaxing and engaging in non-job related tasks and responsibilities during the weekend actually helps employees feel and perform better upon their return to work the following week. Specifically, relaxation during the weekend is shown to increase positive feelings – such as joviality, self-assurance, and serenity – while decreasing negative feelings like fear and sadness.

But there are also negative consequences associated with not relaxing on the weekend. For individuals who are forced to deal with issues like family conflicts, housework and excessive chores, these negative non-work experiences actually increase negative feelings by the end of the weekend and therefore influence the beginning of the following work week. As the study’s authors write, “This underscores the importance of the weekend for recovery experiences, as this is an important time to rejuvenate before going into a new week of work demands.”

Three ways entrepreneurs de-stress on the weekend

Decompressing and relaxing on the weekend doesn’t necessarily mean melting into the sofa with a bowl of popcorn and binge-watching Netflix. To maximize your weekends, try doing what today’s most successful entrepreneurs are doing.

1. Turn off email

While there are many advantages to having smartphones and mobile devices, the frustrating aspect of modern technology is that you can never really disconnect. Even if you’re away from work, email notifications still pop up and vie for your time. So, if you want to enjoy your weekend without thinking about work, you need to turn off email notifications until Monday morning.

If you’re worried about missing an email or not sending a prompt reply, set up an away message that says something like, “Thanks for contacting me! I’m out of the office and away from email for the weekend. I’ll review your message on Monday morning and get back to you as soon as possible.” This message lets others know that you’re away from work for a couple of days — not ignoring their emails.

2. Spend time outdoors

As an entrepreneur, you probably spend most of your time in an office. As such, you don’t get to enjoy the outdoors as much as you’d like. But, that’s what weekends are for! Here are some outdoor activities that entrepreneurs often participate in:

• Hiking. When the weather allows, hiking is one of the best ways to clear your mind and get a little exercise. Find a and plan out a hike with your kids, spouse or close friend.
• Snorkeling. Do you live near the coast or a calm, clear body of water? to simultaneously spend time in the water, get some exercise and enjoy the beauty of nature – and it’s not as challenging as you may think. All you need is some basic equipment and a few pointers from an instructor.
• Playing sports. If you’re spending the entire weekend carpooling your kids around for different team sports and games, then the last thing you want to do is spend more time at a field or court. However, team sports are , too. They allow you to engage in healthy competition, increase your fitness and meet new people. Try joining a casual league.

You don’t have to go cliff jumping or skydiving to bring out your adventurous side on the weekend. Try one of the above activities and you’ll return to work refreshed on Monday.

3. Wake up early

Many entrepreneurs can’t wait for the weekend because it allows them to unplug the alarm clock and sleep in. Well, here’s a piece of non-traditional advice: Set your alarm and get out of bed at the same time as you do during the week. The idea here is that you do yourself a favor by internal clock. Furthermore, when you arise two or three hours earlier on the weekends, you suddenly get that much more time to do things you enjoy. Grab a cup of coffee and read the newspaper. Get involved in a hobby. Have brunch with friends. The options are endless.

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Note from the author Chris LoPresti: My personal experience at Yale led me to appreciate the strong network of successful alumni the school has created over its more than 300-year history. Once you begin your journey down the rabbit hole of entrepreneurship, you’ll quickly discover that time is your most precious resource. My goal for this book is that their experiences (successes and mistakes), will help you avoid pitfalls, make better choices, and use the time you save to make your company or organization even better.

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