I have been kicking around some of my experiences with software projects that just did not fly lately. Sure, they may have worked (eventually, maybe) at a technical level, but they seemed to not go anywhere in reality. I have been thinking about why they failed, or were not as successful as they could have been, and in most cases, the flaw was obvious to the people working on the project. So, what would my ideal, real world friendly project look like? Applying the magic formulas of Six Sigma actually helps here, and that formula boils down to “remove as many potential points of failure as possible.