What techniques or ideas allow you to build a successful software project? There's been no shortage of writing and studying on this topic across the last few decades. So many people expend energy and thought trying to solve the problems of building software at a high level of quality, in a reasonable timeframe, and within some scope that matches the desires of their customers.

I'd like to think most of us succeed, but study after study shows that most parties are disappointed in some way. Developers are under pressure and can't/don't built the level of quality they'd like. Management sees software as taking too long and costing too much. End users see too many bugs, though I think that overall quality has risen in the last decade are more proven frameworks are used and developers have gained more experience in newer and better development techniques.

I ran across a post on a test for successful software projects. It's the Kevin Test for Successful Projects, and it's based on a combination of the Joel Test and the Rands Test. The idea is not that you implement all of these test items, or do them perfectly, but that you work towards doing more of them than not. There are explanations of what each item in the test means in the various pieces.

I think these are good guidelines for projects, and they're simple ones. They certainly can apply to database development. However most people don't really want to spend time on these tasks. However, I think the mundane nature of these items slows you slightly, but forces you to think more about what you're doing. The gains in quality and velocity, in my mind, come from avoiding rework, avoiding losing work, and avoiding regressions.

Sometimes I think the problems in software development aren't that we write poor code, but rather that we rush a complex endeavor, being willing to redo work rather than proceeding in a more engineered fashion.