Comments on: Let’s say “No” to groupthink and stop quoting the Chaos Report http://www.guerrillaprojectmanagement.com/let%e2%80%99s-say-no-to-groupthink-and-stop-quoting-the-chaos-report Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:48:44 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: The “Chaos Report” Myth busters | Guerrilla Project Management http://www.guerrillaprojectmanagement.com/let%e2%80%99s-say-no-to-groupthink-and-stop-quoting-the-chaos-report/comment-page-1#comment-401 The “Chaos Report” Myth busters | Guerrilla Project Management Wed, 24 Mar 2010 05:11:54 +0000 http://www.guerrillaprojectmanagement.com/?p=174#comment-401 [...] a previous blog post titled, Let’s say “No” to groupthink and stop quoting the Chaos Report, I wrote that: “We need to be able to examine the underlying data and measurement methods [...] [...] a previous blog post titled, Let’s say “No” to groupthink and stop quoting the Chaos Report, I wrote that: “We need to be able to examine the underlying data and measurement methods [...]

]]> By: samad_aidane http://www.guerrillaprojectmanagement.com/let%e2%80%99s-say-no-to-groupthink-and-stop-quoting-the-chaos-report/comment-page-1#comment-87 samad_aidane Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:52:08 +0000 http://www.guerrillaprojectmanagement.com/?p=174#comment-87 Maud, Thank you so much for your comment. I totally agree with you. And thank you for the link to the article. Every person quoting the Standish report should read it. I found this direct link to it that does not require registration: http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1150000/1145301/p15-glass.pdf?key1=1145301&key2=2809964511&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CFID=15151515&CFTOKEN=6184618 Thank you again Maud. Maud,

Thank you so much for your comment. I totally agree with you. And thank you for the link to the article. Every person quoting the Standish report should read it. I found this direct link to it that does not require registration:

http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1150000/1145301/p15-glass.pdf?key1=1145301&key2=2809964511&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CFID=15151515&CFTOKEN=6184618

Thank you again Maud.

]]> By: Maud Schlich http://www.guerrillaprojectmanagement.com/let%e2%80%99s-say-no-to-groupthink-and-stop-quoting-the-chaos-report/comment-page-1#comment-86 Maud Schlich Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:47:50 +0000 http://www.guerrillaprojectmanagement.com/?p=174#comment-86 Thanks for you post. Whenever people cite this report to motivate to change something in project management I point them to the article of Robert Glass: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1145287.1145301&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&idx=1145287%E2%88%82=periodical&WantType=periodical&title=Communications%20of%20the%20ACM&CFID=735452&CFTOKEN=99658899 His thesis in the article are really worthwhile reading and still true. And yes, we really do need metrics to be able to improve something. But I also believe that these cannot be universal but have to be found out in every company by themselves (using GQM). Thanks for you post. Whenever people cite this report to motivate to change something in project management I point them to the article of Robert Glass: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1145287.1145301&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&idx=1145287%E2%88%82=periodical&WantType=periodical&title=Communications%20of%20the%20ACM&CFID=735452&CFTOKEN=99658899
His thesis in the article are really worthwhile reading and still true.
And yes, we really do need metrics to be able to improve something. But I also believe that these cannot be universal but have to be found out in every company by themselves (using GQM).

]]> By: samad_aidane http://www.guerrillaprojectmanagement.com/let%e2%80%99s-say-no-to-groupthink-and-stop-quoting-the-chaos-report/comment-page-1#comment-52 samad_aidane Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:25:39 +0000 http://www.guerrillaprojectmanagement.com/?p=174#comment-52 Thank you Jorge for your comment. As you said in your wonderful article “My Theory on Why IT Projects Fail”, a project may be classified as failed when “one of the required features is not working according to the specifications, but all the other 20 features work well. Seriously, many times it is very badly subjective" I totally agree. My experience has been that for every project that is considered a success, there is at least one person in the organization who thinks it is a failure. And no amount of evidence will convince them otherwise. Think of major ERP projects that bring so much organizational change management issues. Going back to the Chaos Report, what if we apply the same criteria and metrics, used to measure IT “Challenged” projects, to non-IT projects and find out that in comparison IT projects are not doing so bad? That would be very interesting. But we will never know because we don’t know the metrics. And that is where I am having a real issue with the statistics we quote. Thank you Jorge for your comment.

As you said in your wonderful article “My Theory on Why IT Projects Fail”, a project may be classified as failed when “one of the required features is not working according to the specifications, but all the other 20 features work well. Seriously, many times it is very badly subjective”

I totally agree. My experience has been that for every project that is considered a success, there is at least one person in the organization who thinks it is a failure. And no amount of evidence will convince them otherwise. Think of major ERP projects that bring so much organizational change management issues.

Going back to the Chaos Report, what if we apply the same criteria and metrics, used to measure IT “Challenged” projects, to non-IT projects and find out that in comparison IT projects are not doing so bad?

That would be very interesting.

But we will never know because we don’t know the metrics. And that is where I am having a real issue with the statistics we quote.

]]> By: PM Hut http://www.guerrillaprojectmanagement.com/let%e2%80%99s-say-no-to-groupthink-and-stop-quoting-the-chaos-report/comment-page-1#comment-51 PM Hut Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:32:09 +0000 http://www.guerrillaprojectmanagement.com/?p=174#comment-51 Good post. I have no idea btw why the CHAOS report is so expensive. I did publish an article about the <a href='http://www.pmhut.com/the-chaos-report-2009-on-it-project-failure' rel="nofollow">CHAOS Report</a> covering the results from 1994 to 2009. The success rate has doubled btw between 1994 and 2009, so it's not all doom and gloom. I don't think the report is far from reality, success (according to CHAOS) is about project management success which is <a href='http://www.pmhut.com/differentiating-between-project-success-and-project-management-success' rel="nofollow">different from project success</a>, which means projects have to be on time, on scope, and on budget. How many projects have you see that were successful with that respect? Good post.

I have no idea btw why the CHAOS report is so expensive. I did publish an article about the CHAOS Report covering the results from 1994 to 2009. The success rate has doubled btw between 1994 and 2009, so it’s not all doom and gloom.

I don’t think the report is far from reality, success (according to CHAOS) is about project management success which is different from project success, which means projects have to be on time, on scope, and on budget. How many projects have you see that were successful with that respect?

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