Software project management anti-patterns

This paper explores the area of bad practices, namely anti-patterns, and their consequences in software project management (SPM). The paper surveys the multitude of anti-patterns that have been reported and documented up to now and stresses the need for tools to formally represent SPM anti-patterns, proposing specific formalisms for such purpose, namely Bayesian Belief Networks, Ontologies and Social Networks. It is also explained how the Web can provide an opportunity for capturing, storing, disseminating and ultimately avoiding SPM anti-patterns. As a consequence, anti-patterns may provide an excellent tool for educating active and future software managers. Finally, conclusions and future research trends are given.