Forbes’ profiled Amnon Landon, and named him their Entrepreneur of the Year. Landon is the CEO of Mercury Interactive, a competitor in many markets to my employer. An interesting story about his leap from being an Israeli paratrooper to a software CEO, but mostly I’m curious to see how Forbes describes the business of software testing and tools. Whenever I read something in the popular press that I feel I know something about, I’m struck by how much they tend to rely on metaphors that can give the wrong picture. Or they make simplifications that I’m not sure are supported by the facts. For instance, the article says:
"Nine out of ten of these IT projects are delivered late, so only 25% of new software apps are thoroughly stresstested before they�re put to work. As a result, four of ten software projects fail to meet their business objectives."
Do those 4 out of 10 really fail to meet business objectives because they aren’t “thoroughly stresstested”? This seems like a pat explanation for why so many projects fail.
I can understand the difficulty of writing for a wider and less-knowledgable audience, but it definitely makes me question the accuracy of material I read in subjects that I have no first-hand knowledge of.