The statistics for software project delivery show that only one in three software projects are truly successful. According to Standish Group's Annual CHAOS report, 66% of technology projects (based on the analysis of 50,000 projects globally) end in partial or total failure. The one of the major reasons of all the project failure is wrong project initiation or applying general mistakes in the project start. Here I am mentioning 5 important points needed to apply during project initiation:
1. Gap Analysis - To determine the current problem/ current state and the desired state and what is the gap difference now and how a software will full fill the need. This state may also refer as Problem Definition Understanding.
2. Define Clear Budget and Timeline - Complete Scope of Work. The budget and calculated timeline. No matter what the budget and timeline should increase unless and until there is additional scope of work added during the project. Its better to work on the scope of work before project initiation.
3. List the Proficient and Courteous Team - To make a complete list all the associate team players, their roles and designation, accountability and authority and finalize the communication channel. The team should be skilled and courteous otherwise its cause difficulty afterwards. Who will be communicating with whom? Types of meeting? Who is meeting in-charge? Is there any role blending? If yes, then who is blended for what role ?
4. Define Task Difficulty Level - List down all the modules according to scope of work and enlist the level of difficulty of any task. This could be Simple, Complicated, and Complex task.
5. Defining Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and Technology to use - - Its always better to decide the SDLC and technology to use before the project initiation. Just like to draw a circle a locus centre is important a required SDLC is required to manage the complete development process.