Recently I have been thinking about the projects I have been involved with and what helped them become sucessful.   I think I finally have something to report to you here in my laboratory notes as to MY 1 best secret to sucessful software.

My first thought was to look at the details of programming languages and techniques.  I then thought about on a higher level how the architecture of the software was more important.  Then I figured that even more important than architecture was the project management.  I think I finally have a root cause to successful projects.  Keep the project 'simple.'  Now that word is a relative term.  The exact nature of  'simplifying a project' depends on the skill of the software team.  Second, it does not follow that a simple project produces a simple product.  Read On. 

I have  developed a basis for this claim that this is the 1 most important ingredient to a successful project.  As the number of  requirements in a project grow, the software complexity grows exponentially (albeit this is a simplistic view) as the following chart shows.

The trick is then to define the project in simple terms yet design a dynamite product.  What I want you to think about is where you want to focus your effort:  Eliminating elements from the X axis of the chart above or troubleshooting program paths on the Y axis.