Jiri’s Notepad

An interesting opinion from Charlie Bess in this post that higher project success these days comes as a result of smaller projects:

One reason that fewer projects fail nowadays is because they are typically smaller and shorter; gone are the days of the monolithic 12-24 month project. The industry has learned that most successful projects are completed with fewer than six people and in less than six months - and that smaller project size also allows for more of the hands-on project status and constant communication that you talk about. It also supports most of the core techniques of agile programming methods. The speed of new business innovations as well as new technology integration was also a factor, as these introductions often made a major “new” system obsolete before it was completed.

I’m not entirely sure, but the observation that most IT work is done in small projects does not feel right. Mega deals are doing fine and mega projects, such as NHS or DII, seem to be live and kicking too.

On the other hand the ’smaller is safer’ certainly rings true. Is it possible that with service orientated approaches we managed to get the missing ingredient allowing us deliver using startegic plans and piecemeal execution?