What went wrong

When you start with bad requirements, it ends in tears.

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” I actually never read Anna Karenina, but I love that opening line. The same goes for software projects; the good ones are pretty similar, but they can go badly so many different ways.

Maybe the funders didn’t allocate enough time (money) to do the job right. Maybe you started with a technical approach that was about 2/3 on target but you got too invested in the 1/3 that didn’t really work and now it’s kind of late in the day. Maybe the client was unclear on the business objectives, so they had trouble providing consistent specifications. Very likely, you’ve implemented the same feature more than once, because the requirements changed or you tried to “converge” too early.

She’s looking for this website right now. You’re that far ahead.

It’s frustrating! You may have gone through a few consultants already, or felt a need to bring in a higher layer of management. Your actual developers might be demoralized and tired. Your ticketing backlog is growing even though everyone is working hard.

What can you do? Something you haven’t tried yet.