Success and Failure in Software Projects

What are the current success and failure rates of current information technology in today’s society? To be truthful, it is rather pathetic. According to a report by the newsletter Insight, “five out of six software projects are considered unsuccessful.” But what is the reason for this breakdown? When looking at this question, however, we must realize that computer technology is still in its infancy, and still is trying to formulate guidelines in which to design, code and maintain systems. Engineering has been around for hundreds of years, and over time has learned through trial and error, the right way in which to produce systems. One of the ways computer technology has been combating this horrid failure rate is by trying to design the proper guidelines. Different models of how to finish doing this design have been coming out all the time. Some stress the importance of teams and modulation of assignments. This can and does sometimes finish projects very quickly if implemented correctly, however, if not implemented correctly can lead to confusion between teams and incompatibility issues with different modules. Other models stress time constraints with programming, and even just programming a part of it, to give to a customer for evaluation. This could include the 80/20 rule where eighty percent of the code is finished and then sent off to the customer for evaluation. Then after assessment, the code is revised to meet what the customer wants. This can be helpful for it takes much less time to do the first eighty percent of coding than the last twenty. The downside, however, is that it might throw computer programmers off track and might take more time rereading and correcting mistakes than if it were tested extensively while being programmed. These models are just some of the ways in which computer science has been developing and growing, and in the future these failure rates will start to diminish. This will help turn computer science into a production field that can live up to an engineering name.