We've described elsewhere how Waterfall projects stereotypically fail, and how Agile approaches succeed. Agile practices, properly applied, have been proven to reliably bring better systems in on-time.

But what does this mean in business terms? What can your organization save if every project comes in on-time and within-budget? Three different studies show that you save at least 25% of your total software expenditures over time, and probably much more.

According to the Standish Group's CHAOS Report of 2000, 25% of all projects still fail outright through eventual cancellation, with no useful software deployed. These represent completely wasted money. All of the key reasons for failure mentioned by the study are specifically addressed and corrected by Agile methods like XP.

But some organizations have much higher rates of project failure. According to a U.S. Department of Defense study of software projects that adhered to the Waterfall approach as described in DoD STD-2167, 75% of them failed outright or were never used. In response to this report, a panel headed by Frederick Brooks was convened, and concluded that an iterative and "evolutionary" approach to software project management should be used instead. Loose descriptions of iteration and evolution eventually grew into today's Agile software development disciplines.

Yet another study of 1,067 projects in the United Kingdom showed a staggering 87% failure rate. The single largest factor in these failures was reported to be the scope-management practices of Waterfall, especially up-front requirements specifications.

If your organization is still using Waterfall project management, chances are that you fit somewhere in the above spectrum of project failures. This means that over tje years, you are wasting between 25% and 87% of your total software budget on project failures. And whatever that percentage is, you can save it by adopting Agile approaches.

For more information on how Agile approaches like XP succeed where Waterfall approaches fail, see this article.

For more information on how Adaption can help you go Agile, call us at 902 681 1640, or email us.