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One more:
- Team - incompetent, not trained, over-dependence on search-engine results .
For case studies, not sure whether companies / corporates will ever make public their internal project reports (including failed ones).
A dated (1996) book where several case studies are presented is "Rapid Development" by Steve McConnell. Though dated, some of these case studies are still relevant, and independent of country (can happen in US, UK, anywhere). You can read some case studies in the Amazon preview.
modified 19-Jun-15 3:29am.
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But that's still a management problem.
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Agree.
One small point: 'Management problem' is like an umbrella term, and this is one of the sub-bullets there.
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Project methodologies are all fine and dandy however we know that they rarely get used, as they are meant to be used, because the world is far to complex to be encapsulated into a project methodology.
The two principle causes of failure that I have seen for IT projects are:
(1)No experience in previously implementing IT projects - combined with too much pride to admit to this.
(2)Not learning from experience of previous projects - again pride in not owning up to previous failures and not taking corrective action.
These two sum up what I consider to make successful projects - you can study as many project methodologies and design patterns as you want. However you will make mistakes and keep making them if you do not learn why you made those mistakes and change your behaviour based on this experience.
A good project manager will be able to assess the competency of their team and will be able to factor in extra time for the mistakes that will be caused by the unexperienced team members.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Shamefully it seems to matter to the teacher which is the ball-ache, Just got in lesson with him now so going to speak to him, hopefully he might be able to shed more light onto it.. Hopefully, but I have doubts as to him helping with it...
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Google for failed government IT projects and you'll get no end of leads
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/19/costly-trail-british-government-it-disasters-universal-credit[^]
Any IT firm that accepts government work just treats it as a blank cheque and invariably ends up taking the Mickey. Add to this the fact that the government doesn't contact firms direct, it hires consultants who sub-contract to other consultants who find software firms who then sub-contract the work to other firms. Between government and coder are 4 or 5 firms, all taking a cut as the work passes its way down.
I've never worked in the public sector myself but I did once work on a government project and it's an eye opener. The waste and mismanagement is unbelievable, and trying to deal with public service workers is like trying to get blood from a stone. The project ran for years, cost hundreds of millions and was live for about a month before it was replaced by something else. No doubt that "something else" had also ran for years, cost millions and millions....
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I'll send you a copy of my autobiography, that should cover it.
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
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Thanks for the replies and the help so far!
Updated OP with my current progress, hopefully one more to go!
UPDATE: THE UNIT TEACHER SCREWED UP SAYING WHAT HE REQUIRED!!!!111!!!
Okay, time to adjust this whole darn thing then...
modified 19-Jun-15 6:36am.
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The only way to fail is to stop trying.
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PIEBALDconsult wrote: The only way to fail is to stop trying.
Absolutely. Failure should always be accomplished without effort. (I don't think that's really what you meant, is it?)
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True, there's nothing worse that expending extreme effort and then failing. Better to fail right off.
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"Short Circuits sold here"
No link, subject, or anything else.
What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?
The metaphorical solid rear-end expulsions have impacted the metaphorical motorized bladed rotating air movement mechanism.
Do questions with multiple question marks annoy you???
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They did not mention a sale on parasitic thyristors[^]?
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
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Interesting link.
What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?
The metaphorical solid rear-end expulsions have impacted the metaphorical motorized bladed rotating air movement mechanism.
Do questions with multiple question marks annoy you???
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The result when such 'accidental transistors' fire is very much like a short circuit. My old Computer is from 1978 and completely CMOS. I don't think that the chips back then were protected against this. CMOS was not 'mainstream' at that time yet.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
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I think we're on the same stupid mailing list.
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Hmm, I think there's some mistake there. That should have been "For a short-circuit, solder here".
Ok, I am out.
You have just been Sharapova'd.
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A man is telling his neighbor, "I just bought a new hearing aid. It cost me $4000, but it's state of the art. It's perfect!"
"Really?" answers the neighbor "What kind is it?"
"12:30."
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Reminds me of an anecdote heard more than 30 years ago. Two hearing-impaired people meet in the city.
A: What time is it now?
B: Just thought of going to the market.
A: Oh, I thought it was coffee time.
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Oldest, certainly! The original's in hieroglyphics! Best?
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Last week after a hefty dose of MS updates my main dev workstation started misbehaving. Starting some programs from mapped network drives would fail with the message 'Path not found ...' with the path to a file that I can get to in explorer. Further, double-clicking on a file such as a project file gave the same message. Further still, I could browse to the project from the IDE and it would open without a problem. Sadly, this mess is also affecting automated build procs so I need to figure it out fast.
Process Monitor (a great free tool) led me to a permissions issue with the CSC folder. Windows denied me access at first but then allowed me to take ownership of the folder and contents. 45 minutes into the process I got worried and clicked the Cancel button. 3 hours later and it is still cancelling!
It's been a great system for the last 5.8 years but looks like it may be ready for retirement! On that note, my FIL called yesterday to brag about his new Surface Pro which MS apparently has on sale for the next few days. I'm seriously considering getting one but thought I'd ask here first if anyone has used or is using one of these for serious development. I would be considering the i5 model (256GB and 8GB) and most certainly a new external drive. The only thing holding me back is knowing what kind of bad@$$ rig I could build/buy for half the cost. Decisions, decisions, ...
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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My new(er) i7 laptop is running Windows 8.1 and the latest updates renderd the Fn key unusable and the stupid mousepad would previously be blocked when my mouse was plugged in, now cannot be turned off.
Ugh! I searched for answers for over an hour last night. It is so annoying when microsoft creates more work and unconfigures your machine with their updates. Terrible.
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I had the Surface Pro 2 (256,8). It is fine for a development system. I was running SQL Server & Visual Studio on it without a problem. The screen is good, although a little small.
However, its biggest drawback is the keyboard. Both styles are terrible to type on. The touchpad is also very poor - I chose to take an external mouse with me everywhere. It also only has one USB port, so I needed to take a hub with me (mouse, camera, backup drive).
Unfortunately, mine got stolen from the boot of my car. Since I needed a laptop, I went straight to the store intending to buy a Surface Pro 3, but ended up with a Zenbook instead.
The Zenbook is great. The screen is bigger, the keyboard is a massive improvement, although it's still only a laptop keyboard. The touchpad is usable. It has 3 USB ports. Very happy with it.
Are the Surface Pros on special now, because the next generation is about to be released?
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