Approaches for Measuring the Management Effectiveness of Software Projects

摘要

There are various studies reporting the success and failure rates of softwareprojects [GA,CH,EL]. Even with the lowest failure rates reported, the software projectsare significantly failing when compared to projects in other fields. In [SL], current projectmanagement issues in leading project-based industries are listed. Among nine industries,in only software industry column, overruns and poor performance is explicitly listed as anissue among others. The average software project is likely to be six to 12 months behindschedule and 50 to 100 percent over budget [YO]. One would expect that our record insoftware projects should have been much better with all the advancements in technicalaspects of software engineering. However, we believe relying merely on technologicaladvances would be misleading. We also need significant advances in software projectmanagement field to achieve better results in software projects. Therefore, proposals anddiscussions for applicable and viable theories, models, tools and practices in softwareproject management are important steps in achieving better project outcomes.