Project Management - "Death March Projects"

What is a death march project? Why do they come about? And, why do people participate in such projects?



Death March Project - A definition


A death march project is one whose "project parameters" goes beyond the norm by at least 50 percent. This means that the project has a high risk assessment due to a combination of factors below:

• The schedule has been lessened or compressed to less than 50 percent of the estimated time. Here, projects that are normally expected to take a year to be completed would now be required to generate results in 6 months or even less. This is due to the stiff competition in the global marketplace. Every one wants to be the first to come out with a new "thing".
• The budget has been cut in half from the original plan. This is attributed to various cost-cutting measures or can also be because of competitive bidding on fixed contract prices. This in turn has a big impact on the number of team personnel or the quality of the project staff. Due to budget constraints, consulting firms may be forced to hire unseasoned programmers and developers.
• The staff was reduced to less than half the number normally required for the particular project's size and scope. Instead of a team of 10 people for a project that would normally take a year and a half to be completed, the team may now be reduced to 7 staff.
• The project requirements are more than what they ought to be. A requirement, may come in the form of functionality or system features. Doubling it may leads to a death march project because the amout of work to be done to fulfill this requirement would also be doubled which means putting more stress on the very few project team members.

The consequence of the constraints mentioned above is asking the project team to work twice the amount needed under normal conditions. This results to tension in the working environment. As the tension escalates, the higher the risk that the project may not be completed on time.

Why do Death March Project Come About?

Below are some reasons and short explanations.

• Good old Politics. There is a power struggle between the forces that be in the organization - CEO, VP, Senior Manager.
• "Naive Optimism". The management who lacks experience in such projects will most of the ask the opinion of the technical kahuna so to speak. If the guy is young, has just been promoted up the corporate ladder and of the overly eager and ambitious type, he might say, "No problem, we can do it in a week!" Of course discounting the fact that to build a successful system you have to participate in a lot of meetings, gather lots of data, edit lots of deliverables, conduct tests, conduct more tests, and still more of it.
• Intense competition due to globalization. These days who is not familiar with competition. Competition which has been made tough because of the Internet phenomenon has been made even tougher due to the rise of "Offshore Outsourcing". The trend of outsourcing overseas has dramatically cut labor costs which results to what we can term as "Price Wars".
• Intense competition due to new technologies. New technologies can either be a boon or a bane. They can either cause the organization to upgrade their old technology and consequently may have to rewrite some of their programs or they can will exploit their older technology beyond its normal limits. This means that the existing technology you're using, may not match the requirements needed by the existing project.

Why do people participate in such projects?

Below are just few of the reasons of which you may agree or you may disagree.

• Opportunity.
• Building a resume.
• Challenge.
• Money gain.

Need I elaborate?