Ask HN: Did you ever work on a large project not exceeding budget or deadline? - 0-o
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cimmanom
Yes, all the time. Being pessimistic helps, but you also need good - and more
importantly, self-aware - engineers, and a senior management structure that's
willing to work with you.

The keys, basically, are realistic estimates and a willingness to de-scope. If
you're willing to launch something with a few bugs and some small features
missing, and to improve them in subsequent releases, you can hit any
reasonably realistic launch target.

In the days of shrink-wrapped software, those bugs and missing features might
have been unacceptable, but in a world of web apps and of app stores with
automatic updates, iterative follow up releases for polish and improvements
and even to incorporate user feedback should be a routine part of any software
process.

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onion2k
I had a startup that was focused on fixing project failure through better
requirements management. Page four of our slide deck was the fact that
approximately 84% of IT projects fail (where "fail" is over budget, late, or
failed to meet the requirements). The newest version of the report has
actually improved a bit on those numbers (~30% success now) but it's still
terrible.

There's quite a decent blog post about it here
[https://speedandfunction.com/look-25-years-software-
projects...](https://speedandfunction.com/look-25-years-software-projects-can-
learn/)

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canterburry
I have been on 3 - 4 "large" projects. My definition of large = $100+M budget
with 400+ ppl working.

3 of the 4 projects failed altogether and were cancelled after about a year
for blowing both budget and timeline.

The large project that did not "fail" was deemed too strategic and the
business simply decided to invest more and keep going until done. Once
management came to terms with the 3+ year timeline, things got a lot more
sane.

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innodb1
There was one project which I had worked on , the project plan was around 6
months and it was executed on schedule till the very last day. It was not a
complex project though.

Migration of a whole bunch of sites to new server , OS + some new developments
etc,with a whole lot of users across several countries. It was the first time
I actually saw someone prepare a plan for ~ 6 months and made it happen too.

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segmondy
Often.

Agile true works. Identify the core, build it quick. No more than one month.
Release and deploy to production. Sprint! Release every 1 week or 2 weeks on
production.

This is my approach to delivering software.

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quickthrower2
Can you define large project? 100 people over 3 years?

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xstartup
3-4 Projects, 10-20M budget, 5-10 developers. Yes, we were on a budget all
time, never exceeded the deadline.

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TomMarius
Yes, but that's because I'm very pessimistic about these things (on purpose).

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willmacdonald
Yes! On a project led by jv22222. (can you link to another HN users?)

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quickthrower2
Yes you can
[https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=willmacdonald](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=willmacdonald)

