1. Background

The “Mongolian Hordes” management myth is the belief that adding more programmers to a software project that is running late will allow catch-up. In fact, as Brooks says adding people to a late software project actually makes it later.

These are IT projects covering diverse sectors including banking and telecommunications, rather than pure software companies. Software companies following maturity frameworks such as the CMMI generally achieve more consistent results.

I recall projects at Motorola that regularly achieved 5.6σ-quality in a L4 CMM environment (i.e. approx. 20 defects per million lines of code. This represents very high quality).

Approaches such as the CMM or SPICE (ISO 15504) focus mainly on the management and organizational practices required in software engineering. The emphasis is on defining software processes that are fit for purpose and consistently following them. The process maturity models focus on what needs to be done rather how it should be done. This gives the organization the freedom to choose the appropriate implementation to meet its needs. The models provide useful information on practices to consider in the implementation.

Parnas has made important contributions to computer science. He advocates a solid engineering approach with the extensive use of classical mathematical techniques in software development. He also introduced information hiding in the 1970s, which is now a part of object-oriented design.

Software companies that are following approaches such as the CMM or ISO 9001 consider the education and qualification of staff prior to assigning staff to performing specific tasks. The appropriate qualifications and experience for the specific role are considered prior to appointing a person to carry out the role. Many companies are committed to the education and continuous development of their staff and on introducing best practice in software engineering into their organization.

The ancient Babylonians used the concept of accountability, and they employed a code of laws (known as the Hammurabi Code) c. 1750 B.C. It included a law that stated that if a house collapsed and killed the owner, then the builder of the house would be executed.

However, it is unlikely that an individual programmer would be subject to litigation in the case of a flaw in a program causing damage or loss of life. A comprehensive disclaimer of responsibility for problems rather than a guarantee of quality accompanies most software products. Software engineering is a team-based activity involving many engineers in various parts of the project, and it would be potentially difficult for an outside party to prove that the cause of a particular problem is due to the professional negligence of a particular software engineer, as there are many others involved in the process such as reviewers of documentation and code and the various test groups. Companies are more likely to be subject to litigation, as a company is legally responsible for the actions of their employees in the workplace, and a company is a wealthier entity than one of its employees. The legal aspects of licensing software may protect software companies from litigation. However, greater legal protection for the customer can be built into the contract between the supplier and the customer for bespoke software development.

Many software companies have a defined code of ethics that employees are expected to adhere. Larger companies will wish to project a good corporate image and to be respected worldwide.

The British Computer Society (BCS) has introduced a qualification system for computer science professionals that it used to show that professionals are properly qualified. The most important of these is the BCS Information System Examination Board (ISEB) which allows IT professionals to be qualified in service management, project management, software testing and so on.

Software companies that are following the CMMI or ISO 9001 standards will employ audits to verify that the processes and procedures have been followed. Auditors report their findings to management, and the findings are addressed appropriately by the project team and affected individuals.

Agile teams are self-organizing and the project manager role is generally not employed for small projects (<20 staff).

This is essential for serious defects that have caused significant inconvenience to customers (e.g. a major telecoms outage). The software development organization will wish to learn lessons to determine what went wrong in its processes that prevented the defect from been identified during peer reviews and testing. Actions to prevent a reoccurrence will be identified and implemented.

These are the risk management activities in the Prince 2 methodology.