Now we get to the final part of the lesson.
And in this part I want to talk about well known,
ineffective development practices. These practices, when followed, tend to lead
to predictably bad results. So let's look at some examples of
these classic mistakes. And we're going to start with mistakes
involving people. And notice that there is a long list. So
I'm going to discuss just a few of those mistakes.
And I'm going to point you to more information on this
topic in the class notes. And some of these mistakes are
actually kind of entertaining. So I'll recommend that you look at
the class notes and go in more depth in this list.
So the first people mistake I want to mention is the
one that I define, heroics. And this refers to too much
emphasis on can do attitudes, so this idea that one person
by himself or by herself can do everything and can make
the difference in the whole project. And unfortunately, this encourages extreme
risk taking and discourages cooperation, which is plain bad for
the project. For example, it might force people not to
report schedule slips. It might force people to take on
on too much responsibility. And normally, and I saw it
happen many times, the final result is a failure. So
what you want when you're developing a larger project, is
actually to apply soft engineering principles. Have teams, have team
work, and have cooperation among the different team members, without pointing
too much on single individuals. Another classic mistake
is to not create the right working environment. We
all like to work in nice environments. And there
is strong evidence that the working environments can play
a big role in productivity. There is evidence
that productivity increases when the workplace is nice, quiet,
warm, and welcoming. Finally, some of the most important
people relating mistakes are due to poor people management.
For example, lack of leaderships, or leadership that is
exercised using the wrong means in the wrong way, which
can lead to very unhappy personnel and therefore, low
productivity, or even people leaving teams. Another classic example of
poor management is adding people to a project that
is behind schedule, which never works. Why it doesn't work?
Because these new people need to be brought up to
speed, and that causes further delays rather than improving the
situation with the project schedule.