Why Software Fails

Charette compiles a catalogue of the largest software disasters in history — Denver's airport baggage system, the IRS modernisation, the FBI Virtual Case File — and extracts the structural reasons behind them. Most failures are not technical: they are failures of scope, communication, governance and the political will to stop when stopping is the right answer. For product direction the piece is diagnostic training; reading it next to any project plan changes which questions you ask first. A useful complement to Royce's paper: Royce warned against linear development, Charette shows what happens when the warning goes unheeded. The reporting is dry, the conclusions are not.