5 Early Warning Signs a Software Project Is About to Miss Its Deadline (And What to Do About Them)
Background: Deadlines Fail Quietly Before They Fail Loudly Most teams do not notice a project is in trouble until the deadline is already gone. In reality, the warning signs show up weeks, sometimes months, earlier. They just get ignored because everyone is busy, optimistic, or afraid to raise a red flag. The data backs this up. Gartner's analysis of large IT projects found that around half of all project failures, regardless of size, come down to functionality problems and substantial delays, and that runaway costs sit behind roughly a quarter of failures on projects over $350,000 ( Gartner, cited via thisiswhatgoodlookslike.com ). Forrester's research on change and delivery initiatives paints an equally sobering picture, with failure rates around 70% for change management efforts tied to technology rollouts ( Forrester, cited via Sourcing Innovation ). The Standish Group's CHAOS Report adds more texture: only 31% of software projects finish on time, on budget, and withi...
