Tom DeMarco has an article in the latest IEEE Software in which he gives an example of two hypothetical software projects. Both are expected to cost around a million dollars. One is expected to return a value of 1.1 million and the other 50 million. Financial controls are crucial for the former but not for the latter. He concludes
… strict control is something that matters a lot on relatively useless projects and much less on useful projects. It suggests that the more you focus on control, the more likely you’re working on a project that’s striving to deliver something of relatively minor value.
Thanks to John MacIntyre for pointing out Tom DeMarco’s article.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Aaron Evans 07.17.09 at 14:28
but if Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs) is right, then those “things of relatively minor value” add up.
John 07.17.09 at 23:56
Developers usually don’t know the expected ROI for their projects. Why not tell them? Maybe they could come up with creative ways to hold costs down. Or even better, maybe they could come up with ways to make the project more valuable.