Re:Ask HN: How do SMBs afford such expensive software engine...
by denton-scratch on Monday July 05, 2021 @10:01AM
(#27738092)
> it can eat you alive
Software development projects are incredibly risky. Estimating development costs is an unsolved problem. I've worked for major software company that cancelled a 5-year development project, employing >200 coders.
Government projects seem to be particularly prone to huge cost overruns; I suppose it's because there usually isn't any single stakeholder, because the specification was written by a committee, because the funding is provided by taxpayers who can't choose to withdraw funding, and because "events, dear boy" result in changes to the goals of the project.
I'm really talking about major projects; small projects can usually be cancelled with little harm.
Software development projects are incredibly risky. Estimating development costs is an unsolved problem. I've worked for major software company that cancelled a 5-year development project, employing >200 coders.
Government projects seem to be particularly prone to huge cost overruns; I suppose it's because there usually isn't any single stakeholder, because the specification was written by a committee, because the funding is provided by taxpayers who can't choose to withdraw funding, and because "events, dear boy" result in changes to the goals of the project.
I'm really talking about major projects; small projects can usually be cancelled with little harm.