Why development projects fail
As developers, it's easy to fall into the trap of believing that everything we develop will have the intended effect.
We often like to think that whatever we do will be successful, so we plan a project with high expectations that it will yield positive results and a high return on investment. Therefore, we invest a lot of time and resources into a project and see it through to the end without batting an eyelash. Then, when it's finished, we put it out there happily — glad that it's done.
Phewww! Right?
The Naivety of Blind Optimism
I would say it is extremely naive to only plan for success. Optimism is good, but blind optimism is a recipe for disaster. And, planning with the assumption of success is a clear example of blind optimism that can have catastrophic consequences. Unfortunately, this problem plagues the culture of many large and small technology companies.
You might be familiar with the consequences of blind optimism. For example, you might have spent days, weeks, or even months developing a component, project, or piece of equipment that never sees the light of day. Worse yet, you might have attempted to develop your own app, only to give up or fail completely halfway through, because you either didn't plan properly or were overwhelmed by other obstacles. Regardless of the situation you were in, it's hard to escape the sinking feeling that comes with failure and the dashed hopes of optimistic success
This problem-solving approach – building first and verifying later – can have many unintended consequences that we cannot anticipate. Blind optimism leads us to only see the end goal and dismiss all success factors along the way. It's as if we stop planning, designing, and thinking about the audience. Build failure into your plans.
Pessimistic Optimism
Yes, optimism is important, as is visualizing success. Disciplined pursuit of a clear goal, an open attitude, and high hopes enable developers to overcome obstacles and see a project through to completion. It enables us to get things done.
The truth is, we can't be all-knowing. We can't predict what effect our products will actually have.
This doesn't mean that you should expect to fail, but you should allow for the possibility that what you're building might not work. Your development work could be for nothing, the components you build might not be scalable, and the whole investment of time and resources could have a negative impact on the company or customers.
If you can imagine that everything you create will eventually crash and burn, you can plan accordingly. You can focus your development process on being more focused, meticulous, and calculated in what you create and how you go about creating it. This way, you can minimize the damage when everything does eventually come crashing down.
In the worst case scenario, you will be less emotional about the situation and more rational in your judgment of how to fix erroneous processes, scalability problems, poor user engagement, and highly coupled/dependent relationships between functions. You can take a step back and think about how you want to implement new processes. You are prepared to test often, share your progress with others, and write code in a very clean and structured way so that it is readable and makes sense to others.
The Right Attitude
Well, this article isn't meant to communicate that you need to think more negatively! That would be the wrong message.
Rather, you should use pessimism as a strategic tool to build a more optimistic career in development. Use negative visualizations to hone your skills and complement optimism. The caveat is that you should not allow such negative visualizations to cripple your confidence in what you are trying to build.
As a developer, you play a big role in shaping the future of technology and business. In order to make a real impact, you need to be realistic and down-to-earth about the potential obstacles you'll face.
Don't be discouraged by the prospect of failure. Let your ideas flourish and use them to become better.
In essence: find a way to be an optimist without being a fool.
