Creative software development is a largely project-based process, but many of these projects unfortunately fail, leaving managers struggling to understand why. A surprisingly high number of projects fail, and studies analysing some 500 different software development projects in real companies found that 15% of projects were either cancelled or never used. This figure is even higher for larger projects, which take longer to finish, particularly those that take at least 25 years to complete. In these cases, 25% of projects are never completed.
During the analysis of these cases, it became clear that not all of the problems were linked to technological issues, and that many problems stemmed from within the teams working on them. This issue, however, is rarely addressed within companies, because managers tend to overlook the human aspect of project management. This is due to the fact that managers are often unclear about their role within the company, and when asked what they do, they usually reply that they are programmers.
As the authors point out, however, a manager’s main role, even when leading teams doing technical work, is to focus on communication among their employees. Their success therefore relies on the positive human interactions within their teams, and on their skill at nurturing these relationships. Employees working under managers who fail to cultivate these relationships tend to be unhappy, which leads to a reduction in the quality of work.
