Life 24×7 here has posed a very important question. Why is it that most all IT projects in the end lead to a situation that people have to stay back more than the stipulated office hours and work 6-7 days a week to get the project done? And in the end the quality of the project is nowhere close to the one which was anticipated in the beginning.
There could be many reasons which could lead to this. Let’s analyze the major ones :-
1) Is it tough work? Building a solution for online reservation of tickets for an airlines may seem impossible or at least insurmountable at first. But enough books have been written about the different life cycle methodologies. Indian IT companies have enough collective experience among them to formalize the whole development into stages. Simply, breaking down a huge task into smaller tasks gets it done. Software development is no different. Build units, combine them into modules, combine them into sub-systems and ultimately you’ll be able to build a complete working system. In no ways is building a reservation system for airlines more difficult than building the plane itself.
2) Are workers particularly incompetent? If the workers were incompetent in any way, India would not be able to establish itself as a preferred destination for IT enabled services and business process outsourcing. One doesn’t need to be physically strong (except for spending these long hours on site) to succeed in the software industry. All that is needed is mental competence and I’m sure India has a decent enough intelligence curve for people employed in the software sector (and otherwise).
3) Are the initial estimates themselves unachievable? This is one of my favourites. In the increasing competition among Indian IT companies, there is a pressing need to win more bids and clients. In that process, business development people tend to overpromise at times. Timelines are shortened, resources are de-allocated and requirements are increased to satisfy the client. No one asks whether at the end of this, the timelines would be feasible. The overpromise leads to the delivery team not being able to fulfill all the initial expectations set by the client or the management of the IT company. Projects get late, initial estimates are revised, which themselves turn out to be impossible, and the iterations continue. What remains in the end are delays, skirmishes, broken promises, lost business etc.
The most common solution for dealing with a late project? Put more people into it. But as is pointed out in the classic software engineering text, “The mythical man month,” putting more people in a project does not necessarily make it quicker. If anything it could lead to the project getting delayed further.
A better solution to deal with a late project? The book “People ware” expressly forbids management to set estimates for activities not performed by them. The books says only the people who are in charge of a particular activity – be it development, or design should estimate that activity. This would lead to more realistic timelines, and consequently better working hours for the industry. I suspect the top management of IT India Inc already knows this. But who would be brave enough to estimate a project to take 4 months when its competitors can promise the same in 2? Never mind that due to innumerable delays, the 2 month project stretches to 12.
Delays and long working hours is something the IT industry will have to live with until it gets the courage to collectively improve the conditions for its employees. Until then, 9am-11pm would be the normal working hours for the Indian IT industry.
Quite ironic that this post was written on a Sunday afternoon from office.
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