Software in the large

Abstract

Large software projects — those that require more than 100 people to develop — are difficult to manage. They usually take more than one year to complete and only one in ten finish on time, within budget, and with the features users need. It is not the people, but how they are deployed, that is the critical issue in managing a large software project. One strategy is to partition the project into a collection of smaller ones, provide the technology and organizational structures to tie these parts together, employ common tools and processes, and schedule formal partial product delivery dates within the project. Management also must maintain a humanistic point of view to keep the project workers focused on their goals, as these workers typically are affiliated with different business units, work in different locations, and have different responsibilities.