Summary: Understanding Failure In Software Development

Understanding Failure in Software Development

Intro

To analyse failure, I wanted to begin by understanding what it is. We all know failure, it seems easy to understand because -as humans- failure is an inherent part of our lives, and we have experienced it at least once in our lives.

The main problem with defining failure is its subjectivity, which makes it difficult to analyse. († this is already stated, remove or bring it to here)

For the purpose of analysing failure, the most fitting definition of failure is “The neglect or omission of expected or required action” (Oxford dictionaries), or put simply: “the non-fulfilment of expectations”.

But failure is more that that, it is the search for mastery, for the search of something new.

A better insight of failure, in project management.

While there are several definitions, one of the most concerning for the purpose of this thesis is towards project management:

From the point of view of a project manager, the five most relevant topics concerning project management are:

Scope Management

Time Management

Cost Management

Quality Management

Risk Management.

(George Stepanek. 2012. Why Software Projects Fail)

There exist other less significant topics that might influentiate the level of risk in a project, but are still important enough to take into account.:

Integration management

Human resource management

Communications management

Procurement management.

According to George Stepanek, there are twelve characteristics that make software project management unique. († yes, I believe all apply to games, as games are a sort of software project)

Software is Complex

Software is Abstract

Requirements are Incomplete

Technology changes rapidly

Best practices are not

Failure in video-games Development

To get more in detail about failure in games development project in specific, it would be useful to compare it with a software development project and see what are the main factors in common.

I did not find sufficient proper research on failure in video-games development, but some affinity can be noticed when comparing it with research on software development.

What is failure for a game developer? The answer could be very ambiguous, but for most of us -and as the analysis will reveal-, failure is when you don’t make enough money, be it because your game is broken, because it was aimed to the wrong target group, or any of the many other factors of failure.

Regarding failure in games development, I have only read the version of the developers, on why their project failed. However, the players are as equally important, and their opinion should also be taken into consideration. In order to find out if the players’ expectations were also fulfilled or not, maybe a research in the games’ reviews must be included in a bigger