2012

Expectation versus Reality: Reducing the Estimation Gap

The benefits to be accrued from having realistic estimates of project costs and timelines cannot be overemphasized. This article explains how optimism bias and strategic misrepresentation can lead to forecasting errors. The author recommends proactive strategies that can be employed by both the buyer and the seller of project services to limit their negative impact. […]

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Flatten cone of uncertainty and reduce cost of change

The first ninety percent of the task takes ninety percent of the time, and the last ten percent takes the other ninety percent. The quote aptly summarizes the fate of many software projects – especially the large ones. Most software projects begin with meticulous planning, yet they fail to meet their objectives. Why is it

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Progressive Elaboration, Planning Onions And The Reality Check

No battle plan survives contact with the enemy – said Field Marshal Helmut von Moltke. It’s impossible to have a perfect plan given the variety of factors at play during execution. At best, plans denote one possibility, the best possibility that we think at a given point in time of how the things might unfold. No

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Meditation – 20 Minutes to a Smiling and Efficient You

There have been few articles in HBR recently on the aspects of meditation and its positive influence at the workplace and overall well-being (Mindfulness helps you a become better leader and If You’re Too Busy to Meditate, Read This). Firstly it’s heartening to see prestigious, widely read and respected magazines like the HBR talk about

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Agile. Why ? Whats Wrong With Waterfall ?

Software companies have used waterfall methodologies for decades now. Agile has made major inroads in the product development area but still its a long way to go for non product development related IT projects. A classic example are software vendors with commercial off the shelf (COTS) products. They have been using implementation methodology with their

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Estimation Number Games – powered by Optimism Bias and Strategic Misrepresentation

Levi Strauss started to upgrade its informational technology system to a single SAP system across geographies for a proposed budget of approx. $ 5 million. After roll out the problems were so severe, the company had to a take a $192.5 million charge against earnings to compensate for the several problems created by the project.

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The Paradoxical Reality Of Estimations

The License Application Mitigation Project (LAMP)  initiated by the state of Washington, US aimed at automating the state’s vehicle registration and license renewal processes. The project began in the early nineties and was supposed to be online in 1995. It planned to create a relational, client-server system using IBM’s MVS/CICS architecture. Initially budgeted at $16

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Implementation: Online project management challenge

Project success depends on the turnaround time and efficiency of tasks circulating between managers and executors. Whether or not you, as a manager, communicate effectively with your team and get timely feedback will affect your ability to meet deadlines. The task becomes even more complicated when you have to deal with remote teams, clients or

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