Schedule driven projects

How many times have you been involved in programs where the most pressing concern of everyone is meeting the schedule? 

Quality (fitness for purpose in this case) is the first to go.  To hell with quality, we need to get this deliverable --- a document, a piece of software, testing, etc. – finished.

Project status reports often show green if the everything is ‘on schedule’.  There is little status reporting on whether things are being done right.

I was involved in a large multi-million dollar program a few of years ago.  Immediately upon joining the program, I saw how badly the system being built will turn out to be.  For example, data input is being designed without consideration of what output is required (how would we know what input is required if we don’t know what output is required?).

I raised and itemised my concerns, but they were brushed off.  The schedule pressure was of paramount importance.

The result was predictable.  It was a very successful program:

• The program came in on schedule (the nth update of the schedule)
• The program came in under budget (the nth adjustment of the budget of course)

Except for the minor fact that:

• The delivered information system was unusable and unused.
• A second remediation program had to be launched two years later to fix the problems of the successful program.

This second program did give long employment to a second set of consultants and employees.