A vital guide to the development of successful software projects, this book identifies the key factors which cause projects to fail. The authors concentrate upon the users' needs as they explain how to pre-empt problems and correct pitfalls. In essence, three keys to success are identified: the way in which the project is run; the quality of the product itself; and the motivation of the people involved in the project. Throughout the book, examples are taken from real software projects. The lessons learnt on these projects are reviewed and used to build an outline of the healthy project.