Stress Analysis of a Software Project [long]

Found it on a Risks Digest and decided to copy the whole post here - just in case it goes missing. The posting is quite long. It is an internl Silicon Graphics memo by Tom Davis and it is a great representation of what can go wrong with (any) big (or small) software project

CITATION STARTS

Jerry Leichter <leichter@lrw.com>

Tue, 26 Apr 94 08:42:32 EDT

The following, which claims to be an internal Silicon Graphics memo, has
already seen fairly broad network distribution.  I have no way of verifying
that it is what it claims to be, but (a) I'm told by someone with close
dealings with SGI that it fits with what he's heard; (b) if it's a fake,
someone put a huge amount of effort into producing it.

I forward it to RISKS as a wonderful record of what goes wrong with large
software projects, and why.  It would be as useful if all the names, including
the company and product names, were removed.  This memo should not be seen as
an indictment of SGI, which is hardly unique.  There is good evidence that
Sun, for example, had very similar problems in producing Solaris; and I
watched the same thing happen with the late, unlamented DEC Professional
series of PC's, and something like it almost happen with firmware for DEC
terminals a number of years back.

Government IT Projects Model

The successful model for a Government IT Projects is:


Fix enough that you are seen to succeed, but not enough that it won’t need fixing again.