Software Development Failures—Anatomy of Abandoned Projects

Kweku Ewusi-Mensah

The MIT Press

Cambridge, Massachusetts

London, England

Copyright 2003 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.

This book was set in Sabon by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ewusi-Mensah, Kweku.

Software development failures : anatomy of abandoned projects / Kweku

Ewusi-Mensah.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

0-262-05072-2

(hc. : alk. paper)

1. Computer software—Development. 2. Software failures. 3. Risk

management. I. Title.

QA76.76.D47E88 2003

005.1—dc21 2002045504

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Maame and Paapa,

in loving memory.