Creating good, solid software
I’m setting out with the intention that this blog will be one which covers a wide variety of topics all relevant to the challenge of creating good solid software that does what the business or organisation wants it to do, no more and certainly no less.
Joining up the business
There has been one common challenge I have tried to resolve throughout my career, the disconnect between those creating the software and the rest of the business. This manifests itself in many different, sometimes subtle, forms and at other times open warfare.
Transparency and Openness
It might seem a rash generalisation to say that almost all the problems are caused by misunderstandings on one or many sides but I am constantly surprised how seemly simple approaches can quickly get everybody working together and focused on the right solution rather than being entrenched in their own bunkers, for example, having the right dashboards and reporting in place is critical.
Topics
Looking forward I have an initial list of topics to cover but I’m sure that when I look back in 6 months or one year I will see that I have adapted based on my experiences.
Portfolio, Programme & Project Management methods (PRINCE2, PMP) and the organisational structures and tools needed to support them such as P3O .
Development Methodologies ranging from the Waterfall, Spiral, Iterative, DSDM, RAD to the more recent various Agile approaches of XP, SCRUM, Crystal, TDD,DDD, …. not overlooking Lean, Six Sigma, KANBAN and the seemingly multitude of combinations being used to improve how software is created. To me this is the most controversial area to comment upon as so often discussions which start out with great promise suddenly become descend into bitter disputes over minuate, distracting from the real, tangible benefits they can bring.
Configuration Management, Continuous Integration, Risk & Change Management, areas which are often considered dull and therefore are not given the attention they deserve but in my experience are critical to success.
Collaboration tools to support geographically distributed development team and the management approaches to working with multi cutural teams across multiple time zones.
Sharing
I will endeavour to provide links to material that in my opinion add to the greater understanding of the tools and approaches available without getting distracted by the next “Silver Bullet”