Understanding Failed Software Projects through Forensic Analysis

ABSTRACT

Software project failure has cost trillions of dollars over the past fifty years. The many reasons for failure are widely discussed in the project management and software development literatures. This paper assesses methods for software project forensic analysis to develop principles and practices that would provide a comprehensive and more complete understanding of the why, when, where, how, and what causes software project failure. This paper discusses the approaches followed to determine the causes of failures, examines the issues and challenges of assessing failures, and proposes a structured approach (forensic analysis) for determining the causes of software project failures.

KEYWORDS:

• Forensic analysis
• software projects
• failure
• causes of project failure