Drivers of Project Success

Recently I delivered my first project as an "architect". What made my day was that it was possibly the smoothest project that I was involved with. Even my project manager thought so (hopefully, as I shall be sharing this blog with him) and asked me to list down a few things that made this project smooth. Below is the list I came up with:-

• The project is only as good as the requirements and requirements translation and in this the product owner team plays a big part. We were most fortunate in having the most responsive and accommodating product owner to whom I attribute most of the success.
• A near symbiotic relation between the development and product owner team based on trust where they anticipate and not second guess the needs of one another.
• Valuing time and time boxing all activities which include adhering to tight time lines during meetings and following an agenda.
• Understanding all failure points before hand - security, infrastructure, personnel etc and planning ahead for them.
• Automating all repetitive activities to the extent of pushing them to the users' control as this ensures that users are not frustrated in waiting for a response from other teams like support.
• Having access to all environments including production so that changes could be pushed out on the fly. We did not have this one but I often wished for it ;)
• Which brings me to my last point - effective communication - which binds all the above points.

So, here's hoping that I am part of many more projects that go as smoothly as this one. (Touch wood)