5 Wrong Ways To Save Money

Project running late? Project over budget? Prepare to read what should be the absolute obvious.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels

It’s not uncommon that software projects either run late or run over their allotted budget. Most of the time, at least in my own experience, this is either down to an insistence on an unworkable methodology shoehorned in by an evangelist to ‘increase efficiency’ or the usual blatant and inept mismanagement in the comedy Keystone Cops style.

Let’s list out and examine some ways that you really don’t want to handle a failing project in the modern game of software engineering if you’re unlucky enough to be in charge or made a terrible mistake and entered management.

1 — Adopting an Unsuitable Methodology

Many software projects are small affairs and as such are easily managed by allocating tasks from a tiny text file, circulating them directly by email, and keeping everyone in touch via simple text messaging.

Let’s call it “developer self-organisation” as we tend to know what we’re doing and can be happily left alone for long periods to just Get Stuff Done.

Others, albeit slightly larger, do benefit from some organisation such as a wiki of some sort, a message board, and perhaps some kind of lightweight milestones just to keep things vaguely on track. You…