Jim Johnson is the founder and chairman of The Standish Group. He has been professionally involved in the computer industry for over 40 years and has a long list of published books, papers, articles and speeches. He has a combination of technical, marketing, and research achievements focused on mission-critical applications and technology. He is best known for his research on project performance and early recognizing technology trends. Jim is a pioneer of modern research techniques and continues to advance in the research industry through case-based analytical technology.
Professor Dr Ing. Hans Mulder, PhD is Standish European research director, executive professor at the Antwerp Management School. As the founder of Viagroep.nl, a company which has investments in IT industry, he is on the management and executive boards of various IT companies. He is regularly engaged as an IT expert when conflicts between companies need to be resolved in or out of court. He is frequently involved in matters of dispute settlement, such as participating in arbitration, mediation and expert reports. Since 1996, he has been involved in over 150 cases of arbitration, mediation and expert reports. Furthermore, he has published more than 100 articles in specialist journals and international magazines, and is the author of several books.
The Standish Group has been formally researching the causes of software project success and failure since 1994. Prior to this date very little research was done and the problems of software project failure were hidden due to lack of transparency. Standish’s cumulative research encompasses 22 years of data on why projects succeed or fail, representing more than 50,000 active completed IT projects and more than 60,000 inactive completed projects stored in a database. Currently, the crisis in IT projects continues. Governments, industry, and parliaments in North America and Europe seek answers regarding why IT projects add little or no value for society, organizations, and individuals. Standish’s research is used more than ever before. Through the CHAOS University program, The Standish Group has hosted almost 500 workshops, as well as focus groups, project “group therapy” sessions, and executive retreats around the globe that focus on particular issues of project management. Major changes in the way software projects were accomplished resulted directly from the findings in this research. Some of these changes improved project performance, while others have acerbated the problem. Therefore, the overall results show very little improvement for the last 22 years. There is both much current debate and new areas of discovery to which the CHAOS Database offers clues. These debates and discoveries include the future role of the project manager, do sophisticated tools help or hurt, how to create a good project culture, is Scrum the holy grail, and what does it take to be a good project executive sponsor?
