Fifty years IT experience

This report tries to argue that this statement will no longer be true for software related projects. Admittedly, the software industry has become one of the most troublesome technologies in the world, although it has already had about fifty years to mature. Unfortunately this shortcoming is nowadays effecting more and more people, because software is part of nearly every technical device such as video, recorders, mobile handsets, dishwashers and so on. Our technological society is more and more dependent on that intangible asset - could you possibly imagine booking flights or executing stock exchange transactions without computerised systems? To fulfil the above mentioned, admittedly ambitious goal, this report investigates the most frequent reasons of failure and success, using related surveys, academic research by key people in this field as well as information sources, which are focused on practical daily business issues - such as the Internet and press articles. These different view points are discusse, compared, structured and coupled with my own experience. One of the most interesting findings at this point is, that failed and successful projects seem to follow a similar pattern. Based on that observed phenomenon, an important outcome of this research will be a compilation of the most important factors that contribute to either project failure or success. The report concludes with the inclusion of some established models to maximise the probability of successful projects from a long term and strategic point of view.