Software development project risks

I’ve seen project delayed on many occasions for many different reasons, but 3 of the following are the most common (assuming that the development team and management are good to start with).

• Schedule flaws due to inaccurate estimates.
• Scope creep due to additional requirements after the initial signoff by management.
• Resources turnover - people come and go.

Here is another risk that I encountered which is sometimes overlooked.

• Slow response from users

Here is a real project I did for one of my clients. I developed a complete web portal solution for a medium size business. It took my small team (myself, 1 developer, 1 web designer) a total of 4 months to complete the development. I scheduled 1 month for UAT (User Acceptance Testing) with the assumption that users will do extensive testing and send me a weekly report with issues/bugs so we can fix them ASAP. I was chasing users for 3 weeks and got nowhere. At the end of the so-called UAT period, only 10% of the functionality was tested by users. The developer who worked for me had certain commitments and was no longer able to work for me. I had to find another developer to help me finish the project. It took extra 6 weeks to find new developer, do UAT and fix the bugs.

So it is important to explain to the client that if she wants a timely delivery of a custom solution, it requires not only quality work on a consultant's part but also good communication and timely responses on client’s part.