Software projects are considered success when:
1. Completed on time,
2. Without exceeding resources budget.
In software development there are many unknown factors.
Developers do not know which software parts work well with which software/hardware parts.
In theory, anything can be done - but at differing time/resource costs.
Worst risks to time/resources should be addressed first:
1. Business/Development Team should organize a meeting and consider dangers/risks - not only from technological/scientific perspective,
2. Dangers/Risks should be analyzed and prioritized, from worst to least,
3. Unknown factors are risks as well, the less we know - the worse risk/danger potential,
4. Research & Prototyping are tools for assessing whether something can be done within given time/resources budget costraints. This should be one of the first phases of development.
Without these steps, unhandled risks can backfire in form of excess of resources needed, and/or in form of software development time exceeding the deadline(s).
As time flows, reality changes and customer requirements might change as well.
This is also risk, usually handled by extra time and resources allocation to project's total costs - as well as by adopting iterative development methods / as opposed to outdated 'waterfall' model, in which customers' requirement changes are not allowed by business contract /.
High quality projects should also offer 'limited warranty' time - where bugfixing and minor corrections are included in project's cost, for a given time - after closing the project.
Software quality procedures allow for faster and less expensive changes - both bugfixing and functionality changes - but customers usually do not know how to assess software's quality, and prefer to not overinvest in quality procedures they can't understand.
