Watts S. Humphrey of the Software Engineering Institute wrote an article with the same title for the July/August issue of Crosstalk, a journal sponsored by the US Department of Defense and other government groups. You can find the entire issue online at: www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/2010/07/index.aspx.

Humphrey's article described causes for software-project failure or lateness and he notes:

"But the fact that these large projects keep failing suggests that program managers don’t know what to do. However, we must do something and it should by now be clear that relying on program managers to fix these projects isn’t working. This article suggests how to address these problems in a way that program managers can implement today."

The Software Engineering Institute at Carniege-Mellon University created the Team Software Process (TSP), and according to the article, "...one of its principal features was that its management system was based on precise, operational-level data. With the TSP, the developers gather and use data to manage their own work, and they use their data to accurately measure project status to within fractions of a day. TSP teams report their status to management every week, and management can see exactly where every element of every project stands. With precise status information, management can see small cost and schedule problems before they become serious. They can then take timely action to identify and resolve the problems."

Learn more about TSP at www.sei.cmu.edu/tsp/.

The 32-page issue of Crosstalk magazine concentrates on TSP and how companies and teams can adopt and adapt it to their specific circumstances. So far I've read only Humphrey's article and his interview with a magazine editor. But the magazine is in my stack for more attention over the next weekend.

Crosstalk has a small group of subscribers, but anyone involved with software can sign up for a print subscription or browse through back issues. The magazine publishes every other month. The Software Technology Support Center at Hill Air Force Base, Utah publishes the magazine. --Jon Titus