October 19, 2022
How to Take Over Your Project in Case of Failed Development
Co-Founder & CEO
October 19, 2022
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The modern market is moving online, and almost every business now requires software development. As a result, this also increases the number of development companies that offer various solutions. However, not every provider can deliver the expected results, as most of them are inexperienced and only waste the time of their clients. And it is hard to choose the quality one that you can trust.
In fact, statistics show that most software projects fail. Based on a review published in 2020, 66% failed during that year. Whether the 2022 level is higher or lower, the failure rate is still high. Even though one of the key reasons is poor development providers, there are many causes of projects failing, like documented requirements and inadequately chosen development tools.
We created this guide to outline several key reasons why projects fail, steps that you can take to save your project, and how to find a trusted development provider that will deliver the expected results without wasting a fortune. Whichever situation you find yourself in, we hope this article will be a useful reference point for you in ensuring you have a smooth project transition and get your well-deserved project.
11 Reasons Why Software Projects Fail
Software projects are an essential part of most businesses now. Development isn’t an easy process that may come with specific challenges and might not always be easy to implement. Failure in software development can be frustrating and make it harder to finish the product. However, you can explore key reasons why projects fail to prevent failure next time. Let’s explore them below:
1. Unrealistic Timelines
One of the key reasons why projects fail is Project Managers that agree to unrealistic timelines. Even if you have tight deadlines, a company’s project manager should be responsible for taking care of how much time the team needs to build the product. So if a project manager agrees on tight timelines without carefully weighing the resources available to each team, the project will fail.
2. Scope Creep Mismanagement
Developers and designers are creative, so when they dive into an interesting project, theft may suggest tweaking everything and building something much larger than the planned project.
3. Poor Backlog Management
Managing the backlog is a crucial element of stable, successful, and effective software development and on-time delivery. So when some teams prioritize tasks that shouldn’t be prioritized, the project may fail.
4. Not Considering Cost of Delay
Cost of Delay (also known as CoD) is a measure of the monetary impact that the failure to deliver a project on time would cost a company. Knowing the price and showing it to your team will let them keep it in mind and encourage on-time delivery.
5. Considering Discovery and Delivery Processes Independently
Discovery is an essential stage of effective software development. In addition, delivery means several days or weeks for the marketplace to approve the new product. Therefore, if teams do not consider the time needed for both stages, the chances of delays are high.
6. Poor Testing Strategy
It is essential to note that all software has bugs. However, more serious errors can be identified only when the development provider has a robust testing strategy and a team of testers. Therefore, if you partner with a company that uses outdated tools or does not improve its testing strategies, you have all chances to get a poor-quality product.
7. Unclear Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Requirements
Having clear requirements for MVP development is the key to getting your MVP on time and ensuring it serves its purpose. However, the biggest mistake most companies make is believing that MVP doesn’t need too many details, which results in poor MVP and greatly affects the final project that will be used by users.
8. Failing to Maintain a Sustainable Pace
Speed is essential if you want to get the product on time. Even though sometimes issues happen and your development teams need more hours than they mentioned, if it is the regular practice, you can be sure the product won’t be delivered on time and will require more days, weeks, or months to be finished.
9. Poor Communication
Poor communication usually happens when your development provider either doesn’t know your language or has different time zones. However, it also may happen if the team doesn’t have a project manager who can always keep you informed. Poor communication is currently the biggest cause of project failure.
10. Developer Skill Set and Project Requirements Mismatch
It is not surprising that some projects may require specific skills from the developers. That is why it is essential to find a team that has relevant experience and needed skills to build your project. So before looking for a trusted development provider, we recommend you create a list of requirements and present them on a call.
11. Relying on Traditional Software Development Methodology
There are many software development methodologies, but some companies still rely on outdated ones like Waterfall. However, Agile methodology has been shown to provide much better results and on-time delivery. So look for companies who follow this methodology in the development process.
Key Steps to Rescue Your Project
Since you know the most common reasons why projects fail, let’s explore what is the process of software development project rescue below:
Stop the Development
If you notice that the current provider already delivers poor results, the most logical step will be to stop the development right now. That is because you won’t be able to improve the exciting scenario and will only lose both time and money.
Collect Everything from the Project
To achieve a software project rescue, you need to collect all documentation designs, wireframes, elements, task trackers, and everything else from the project. You will need this not only to make the transition smoother and faster but also to learn lessons from the past.
Find a Trusted Software Provider
Once the development process has been stopped, it is time to believe in the development again and find a new team of professionals. It might be hard to trust developers again, but you need to put all effort into finding a quality team this time. It is not only vital to find a provider with the relevant background but also one that offers software development project rescue services. Finding a provider who knows how hard it could be to save the project without wasting a fortune is your wild card.
Communicate Your Situation
When you find the provider, you need to clearly communicate the results from the last provider, problems you faced, exciting budget, timelines, and goals. Communication is the key here since how you describe the problem will greatly impact how the company will help you with the project. Every new team member should know their role and be fully informed.
New guidelines
Since previous work wasn’t successful, it is best to set new guidelines or try another approach to allow a successful project takeover. You can either outsource your project or hire a dedicated team that will finish the development and provide the expected results. Make sure that every responsibility is confirmed clearly and transparently.
Restart the Work
Now you are ready to restart the development from an exciting stage. Hire a project manager that will be in charge of the smooth transition and communication with the team. It is also vital to document all steps done to track mid-results. Having the documentation will also help you avoid previous mistakes.
What to Do If Your Project Goes Over Budget
Let’s explore how to manage budget in a project:
1. Understand the Cause for Overrunning
If you notice a project over budget, the first step is to find the cause. There are many reasons why it may happen, so try to suggest a few and identify key ones. Costs will only grow if you won’t do anything about it, but if you take action, you can save your project.
2. Identify the Impact
Once the cause has been identified, you can start estimating its impact on the project. The best way to achieve a clear picture is to check the effect of six constraints each project has:
- Time
- Cost
- Scope
- Quality
- Resources
- Risk
3. Start the Action & Find Solutions
Knowing causes and impacts leads you to action and potential solutions. There are several effective ways to save the budget of your project:
A: Swap Staff with Lower-Cost or More Productive Employees
One of the great ways to save the budget of your project is to swap your exciting human resources with effective or lower-cost ones. There are two ways you can achieve this. The first and risky one is to swap your current human resources with more experienced staff, which will result in fewer hours of work. However, more experienced teams will be more expensive. The second approach is to find staff with lower costs for the same work, which may lead to poorer quality results.
B. Reduce the Scope of the Project & Shirt Priorities
If you always add the scope of the project without considering budget and resources, you will have all chances to waste your budget. When you start your project, we recommend you clearly document all scope elements, potential new features, and new resources you need and prepare your budget for everything mentioned. You can’t waste money on unnecessary things, like a feature that costs thousands, while you have more valuable things to do, like finishing the design.
C. Eliminate Non-Labor Costs
Since you can reduce costs when it comes to labor, you can also eliminate non-labor costs, as they are usually high. These costs may include plane tickets, the hardware used, or a number of data providers. The goal is to save money for the development and unexpected situations you may face by reducing the need for non-labor costs.
Why Choose Interexy?
Interexy is an experienced mobile and web development agency. We offer clients a flexible cooperation approach, so they can choose to outsource, outstaff and dedicated teams. Since we’ve been on the market for many years now and started our company with the goal of changing standards in the industry, we know how hard it could be to find a reliable development partner.
Explore our staff augmentation services for software development.
Therefore, we’ve been the second development team for many clients who experienced failure with the previous company. We know that you don’t want to spend a fortune and a few years more waiting for the product, so we can help you organize a smooth transition and get the most qualified engineers to know how to help you at any project stage. We offer software project and application rescue to help you achieve a success.
Final Thoughts
People are looking for convenience and speed, while remote work and restrictions made it possible for global digitalization. As a result, businesses need software development. However, almost 60% percent of projects fail due to many reasons. Knowing why our project may fail, the steps to take in this case, and how to save the budget can help you get a quality product with less stress and resources. Book a call with our experts to learn how we can help you after a failed development!
FAQs
How to Mitigate a Project over Budget?
You can save the budget in many ways, like replacing staff with lower-cost employees, hiring a project manager, reducing non-labor costs, finding funding, and more.
How to Rescue a Failed Project?
You need to stop development, collect all information from previous development, find a reliable development company, communicate your situation, set new guidance and restart the work.
Why do Projects Fail?
There are many reasons why projects fail, like poor quality of developers, running over the budget, lack of communication, and more.
