Software Development Archives

5 Signals That Your Software Project Is About to Go Sideways

Most failing software projects don’t collapse overnight. The warning signs are subtle at first—missed deadlines, vague answers, shifting priorities. But if you know what to look for, you can catch the cracks before they become chasms.

At Intertech, we’ve rescued enough troubled projects to know the patterns. Here are five signs your software project might be drifting off course—and how to steer it back on track.

1. Vague Requirements That “Will Be Finalized Later”

If your team is already coding while business requirements are still fuzzy, you’re gambling with time and money. Ambiguity upfront turns into expensive rework later.

Fix:
Push for clarity early. Use collaborative discovery sessions, detailed user stories, and prototypes to validate direction before writing production code.

2. Stakeholders Are “Too Busy” to Engage

If decision-makers aren’t showing up to key meetings or giving timely feedback, expect delays and mismatched expectations.

Fix:
Build stakeholder check-ins into the schedule. Use short, focused reviews to keep engagement high and decisions moving.

3. You’re Measuring Hours, Not Outcomes

When conversations revolve around “how many hours were billed” instead of “what was delivered,” the focus has already shifted away from value.

Fix:
Shift the conversation. Define milestones in terms of business outcomes or working software—not just time logs. (This is why Intertech’s UnifiAI focuses on real business impact through outcome-based delivery and AI-enhanced development.)

4. No One Can Explain What Done Looks Like

If developers, testers, and business leaders each have a different definition of “done,” brace for friction at release time.

Fix:
Use a shared Definition of Done. Spell out what’s required for a feature to be complete—from code to QA to stakeholder approval.

5. Surprises Keep Popping Up

Whether it’s unexpected dependencies, missed data fields, or newly discovered constraints—constant surprises usually mean poor planning.

Fix:
Invest time in project risk planning. Ask, “What could go wrong?” early and often. Good teams surface issues before they surface themselves.

Final Thought

No project is perfect. But recognizing these early signals—and acting on them—can mean the difference between a smooth launch and a budget-burning scramble.

If your project feels off and you can’t quite pinpoint why, we’re happy to take a second look. It’s what we do.

Hiring for Curiosity, Ownership & Adaptability: How We Assess the 3 Traits That Matter Most

At Intertech, we’ve made a conscious shift in how we hire. While technical skills still matter, they’re no longer enough. The how behind the what—how a consultant thinks, adapts, and leads—is the true differentiator.

So how do we identify candidates who demonstrate curiosity, ownership, and adaptability? Here’s a look under the hood.

1. Curiosity

Look for the why-askers.

Interview Signal:
We ask candidates to walk through a complex past project and pause halfway through. Then we throw them a twist—“What if the client had changed direction at this point?” or “What if a key assumption was wrong?”

What we’re watching for:
Do they instinctively ask clarifying questions before answering? Do they seek to understand the business context or user goals? Curious minds don’t rush—they explore.

2. Ownership

Listen for stories where they took the wheel.

Interview Signal:
We prompt candidates with this:
“Tell me about a time when something went wrong and it wasn’t technically your fault, but you stepped in anyway.”

What we’re watching for:
Do they shift blame or step up? Ownership doesn’t mean perfection—it means being accountable when it counts.

3. Adaptability

Throw them a curveball—on purpose.

Interview Signal:
We often introduce a challenge mid-interview:
“Let’s imagine your tech stack suddenly changed. How would you re-approach the problem?”

What we’re watching for:
Are they flustered or open-minded? Do they pivot with poise or dig in defensively?

Bonus: We Talk Less, Listen More

Our interviews are structured to minimize talking and maximize listening. When candidates tell real, unscripted stories—especially about failures or pivots—that’s where the gold lives.

Why This Approach Works

When clients choose Intertech, they’re trusting us with big goals and big expectations. By hiring consultants who are naturally curious, take ownership, and adapt quickly, we stack the deck in everyone’s favor—ours, theirs, and yours.

From Billable Hours to Business Impact: What Clients Really Want

When you ask consulting firms how they measure success, they usually answer: “We bill by the hour.” Fair enough—it’s traditional and transparent.

But ask enterprise clients what they really care about, and you’ll hear something very different:
Business outcomes. Real results. Improved performance.

Large organizations don’t pay for hours. They pay for impact.

Why the “Hours Model” Falls Short

Billable hours track effort—not outcomes. You can clock 100 hours on code that never ships, or on meetings that don’t move the needle. Meanwhile, the client paid—but didn’t win.

Clients don’t hire us to be busy. They hire us to move the needle.

What Clients Actually Want

They want to:

Launch faster, more reliable products
Reduce technical debt or risk
Achieve automation or scale
Save operational costs
Deliver measurable ROI

That requires strategy, alignment, and efficiency—not just hours.

How We Shift from Time to Impact

Here’s how Intertech turns that shift into reality—and why it works:

1. Start with clarity

Before writing a line of code, we define what success looks like. Not scope. Not estimated hours. Real outcomes tied to business goals.

2. Ask the right questions

What metric matters most? Where’s the friction? What happens if we’re wrong?

3. Communicate in value, not time

Instead of “X hours spent,” we report on what’s delivered—and how it aligns with business goals.

4. Amplify impact with UnifiAI™

UnifiAI™ is our proprietary system of intelligent AI agents, tailored to fit your platform and team, designed to unlock real efficiency across planning, coding, documentation, testing, QA, and integration. It’s built on agentic AI “but led by humans,” cutting development time by up to 50%

That’s not about doing more—it’s about doing more that matters. More speed, more accuracy, more capacity—for the same or less investment.

Why This Matters to Clients and Teams

Faster to market, reliably
With UnifiAI™ trimming repetitive work, delivery cycles shrink—without sacrificing quality.
Greater ROI
Less time in the weeds means more value delivered per dollar spent.
Stronger relationships
When clients see consistent value—not just effort—they stick around. And they recommend.

A Different Way Forward

If you’re running a services firm—or choosing one—here’s the path to real impact:

Don’t sell time. Sell clarity.
Anchor on outcomes. Measure by value.
Use smart tools like UnifiAI™ to amplify your team’s impact.

Clients don’t want consultants to keep them busy. They want partners who move them forward.

That’s what real impact looks like.

Generative AI & Prompt Engineering for Software Developers — Join Us October 16!

AI isn’t the future—it’s now. And if you’re a software developer, the question isn’t whether you should learn how to use generative AI, but how fast you can get up to speed.

That’s exactly why we’re offering our live, one-day workshop:
“Generative AI & Prompt Engineering for Software Developers”
–October 16, 2025
–Live & Instructor-Led
–Sign up today!

What You’ll Learn

This isn’t a surface-level intro. We’re going deep on how AI is revolutionizing modern software development and how to take full advantage of it in real-world projects. You’ll learn:

Real-world use cases (and hands-on labs) using the AI tools we’re integrating at Intertech today

How to write precise, effective prompts to get quality output from AI tools

Best practices for using ChatGPT and other large language models in coding, documentation, testing, and debugging

Common prompt pitfalls and how to avoid them

How to speed up project delivery without compromising quality

Why Most Software Projects Fail Before a Line of Code Is Written

When software projects go sideways, everyone looks at the developers.
But here’s the truth we’ve seen again and again:

Most failures happen before the first line of code is even written.

It’s not the coding. It’s what happens—or doesn’t happen—before coding starts.

1. The goals aren’t clear

Ask five stakeholders what success looks like, and if you get five different answers, you’re headed for trouble.
Without a shared definition of “done,” projects drag, priorities shift, and the final product pleases no one.

Fix it:
At Intertech, we don’t write code until everyone agrees on goals, guardrails, and outcomes. No guesswork. No assumptions.

2. Requirements are rushed

“We need a login, some reports, and a dashboard.” That’s not a spec—it’s a wish list. Too many projects jump into development with vague features and unclear logic.

Fix it:
Slow down to speed up. We workshop requirements, ask hard questions, and pressure test assumptions before a developer touches the keyboard.

3. The users are missing

We’ve seen projects stall because they were built for what management thought users wanted—not what users actually needed. That disconnect is expensive.

Fix it:
User interviews. Prototypes. Feedback loops. Involve the people who will live with the software from day one.

4. There’s no plan for change

Scope creep doesn’t kill projects—poor change management does. Requirements shift. Priorities evolve. But if you don’t have a process to manage that, chaos takes over.

Fix it:
We build in checkpoints. We communicate trade-offs. And we use tools that make it easy to update without blowing up the timeline.

5. The team is misaligned

Even with great tools and talent, if your internal team and your vendor aren’t on the same page, it shows. Missed messages. Missed deadlines. Missed expectations.

Fix it:
We overcommunicate early. Daily huddles, shared channels, clear escalation paths—because alignment beats brilliance every time.

The takeaway?
A successful project starts before the kickoff.
It starts with clarity, discipline, and a partner who’s not afraid to slow down to get it right.

We’ve seen it. We’ve learned it. We build for it.