Late Projects Are All the Same

The famous Tom de Marco shares in the article “All Late Projects Are the Same” some experience of his 50th year working in information technology. He thought initially all late projects were the same in that they were really estimation failures, not performance failures. Now he thinks that all projects that finish late have one thing in common: they started late. His conclusion is that the complaints about project lateness are caused by the fact that the project set out to deliver marginal value and was therefore kicked off under the false premise that it could be completed on the cheap.