Secrets Exposed: Improving Schedule Accuracy

摘要

Welcome to my world. I'm the date the software for this product was going to ship (the socalled “End Date”). Note the words “was going to ship”. Everyone knows the software won't really ship on this date. I was chosen from 364 other dates because I was viewed as the most optimistic date a super hero could meet to deliver the product. When they first chose me, I was lauded with cheers of excitement and I was put in documents and on white boards everywhere. But now I'm nothing but cursed. They selected me pretty much at random. They didn't look at project history nor do any formal estimation methods. And of course, I was the only one chosen. They didn't have the foresight to give a range of delivery dates. As the project progressed, they really didn't look much at me, instead focusing on getting more features in and fixing all those bugs they introduced. I knew I was in trouble early in the project when the requirements document was published and it was only two paragraphs. And now they are saying some date halfway across the calendar is the new delivery date. I was doomed from the beginning… Does any of this sound similar to your product development end dates? Far too many of our software projects are late. As software engineers and software quality engineers, we must do a better job meeting our end dates. This paper will highlight some of the areas where we go wrong and give you some insight into how perform and influence better project scheduling, tracking and oversight, estimating and overall project management.