Study of Factors that Induce Software Project Overrun Time

Software is created with programming languages and related utilities, which may come in several forms. For a software project to be successful it is essential that the project is completed on time and within the estimated budget, with all features and functions as originally specified. However due to various reasons these software projects fail some even get cancelled before they even get completed. Because of this, the projects can be categorized into Successful projects, challenged projects and Failed projects. The failure is caused mainly because of cost overrun or time overrun or because the product was not delivered with all the requirements as per initial specification. The cost of these failures and overruns are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The lost opportunity costs are not measurable, but could easily be in the trillions of dollars. Hence it is important that detailed work be done on these to overcome the huge costs they incur. This research work is focused on analyzing the factors that cause software project time overruns and to provide recommendation to overcome or mitigate the effect of some of the identified factors on software project. The project employs systematic, formal and descriptive research techniques. This study is based on the data collected through structured questionnaire and in-depth, unstructured and informal interview with key personnel. The sampling technique used is snowball sample technique. Since the research topic is highly qualitative in nature, we are prompted to use simple percentages so as to make the data more succinct.