"In theory, if the economy hadn't crashed and this project had continued on, then the FBU product was predicted to sell very well indeed. I don't know the real numbers, but our business guys estimated that it would bring in around $2 million profit each month once it went live. The project would 'break even' six months after it went live—that's the point where the bank account crossed over from a negative to a positive balance. Of course, that number was just a forecast—an educated guess. It could be more, it could be less, but you get the idea." "Wow," said Bob, neatly expressing his amazement. He previously had ignored the money side of projects; his job, after all, was to make software, not money.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his interoffice messaging software flash. He moved the mouse of the icon and saw that the latest message was from Billy. It said, "Double WOW!" "You think that's wowable?," Sam said. "Those numbers are conservative. MegaCorp is a big company and because of its scale, it can make huge revenue from relatively small investments." "So, in the long run, MegaCorp is losing a lot of money by not doing FBU?"
Sam said, "Yeah," then wandered off. She had some Is to dot and several Ts to cross before home time.
Bob tore the page off his pad then pinned it up on his cubicle wall. His retirement fund had shares in MegaCorp.
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About the author
An independent consultant and regular columnist on StickyMinds.com, Clarke Ching is a passionate advocate of agile software development and a chairman of the AgileScotland special interest group. He is the author of the book Rolling Rocks Downhill, in which he demonstrates how to use lean, quality, and agile techniques to make your projects more productive and predictable. Read more about Clarke's work at www.clarkeching.com.
