Process. Planningpoker. Fool's Gold - Steve McConnell. “Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.” —Francis Bacon Software problems have persisted partly because of the bewitching appeal of a few common, ineffective practices. During the California gold rush in the late 1840s and early 50s, some prospectors were deceived by fool’s gold—iron pyrite—a substance that has the luster and sparkle of gold. Unlike gold, iron pyrite is flaky, brittle, and virtually valueless. Moving the Block Looking back many centuries before the California gold rush, suppose that you were working on one of the ancient pyramids and were given the assignment to move an enormous stone block 10,000 meters from a river to the site of a pyramid under construction, as shown in Figure 2-1.
Figure 2-1 One way to think of a software project is as a heavy block of stone. You are allowed to use any method you like to get it to its destination. Some block-moving teams might immediately begin pushing the block, trying to move it with brute force. Figure 2-2 Figure 2-3. Definition of Done: A Reference. An Agile project has ceremonies (sprint planning, release planning, sprint retrospective, etc.) and metrics (sprint & release burndown charts) designed to ensure that the project is in a healthy state.
Unfortunately, many Agile projects fail even after following all the ceremonies religiously. Why? One of the primary reasons is that they are not able to deliver value to the customer at the end of each sprint. They deliver a product at the end of each sprint, but not a product that is potentially shippable. Here lies the root cause of failure. The software these projects deliver at the end of each sprint is half tested, half documented, half refactored and only half ready for release. An explicit and concrete definition of done may seem small but it can be the most critical checkpoint of an agile project. Before we explore a definition for done, it is important to define another Scrum term: potentially shippable product.
What is a potentially shippable product? Better. Column One Column Two. Construx Software. Rands In Repose: Bored People Quit. Much has been written about employee motivation and retention. It’s written by folks who actively use words like motivation and retention and generally don’t have a clue about the daily necessity of keeping your team professionally content because they’ve either never done the work or have forgotten how it’s done. These are the people who show up when your single best engineer casually and unexpectedly announces, “I’m quitting. I’m joining my good friend to found a start-up. This is my two weeks’ notice.” You call on the motivation and retention police because you believe they can perform the legendary “diving save”. It’s an impressive show of force, and it sometimes works, but even if they stay, the damage has been done. Boredom is easier to fix than an absence of belief. Detecting Boredom There are many reasons other than boredom that someone will quit.
My three techniques for detecting boredom: Any noticeable change in daily routine. I think of boredom as a clock. Where are they going? The Management Myth - Magazine. During the seven years that I worked as a management consultant, I spent a lot of time trying to look older than I was. I became pretty good at furrowing my brow and putting on somber expressions. Those who saw through my disguise assumed I made up for my youth with a fabulous education in management. They were wrong about that. I don’t have an M.B.A. The strange thing about my utter lack of education in management was that it didn’t seem to matter. After I left the consulting business, in a reversal of the usual order of things, I decided to check out the management literature. Management theory came to life in 1899 with a simple question: “How many tons of pig iron bars can a worker load onto a rail car in the course of a working day?” Taylor was forty-three years old and on contract with the Bethlehem Steel Company when the pig iron question hit him.
When the Hungarians realized that they were being asked to quadruple their previous daily workload, they howled and refused to work. Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules (0790145590053): Steve McConnell: Books. What is software design? (Jack Reeves, 1992) Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management (Theory in Practice (O'Reilly)): Scott Berkun: Books. Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager: Michael Lopp: Books. Good programmers: nature or nurture? From where do good programmers sprout? Do they come from top-notch collegiate computer science programs? Do they stem from a gene correlated with good problem-solving abilities and ability to think in higher level abstractions?
Where does the balance lie between nature and nurture? There's a difference here between good programmers and simply competent programmers. Competent programmers are good at coloring between the lines. I don't know where good programmers come from. A college degree is not necessary. Curiosity is necessary. You don't have the time to address your curiosity? In the coming technology landscape: meta-programming, crossing-the-chasm from statically typed object-oriented languages to dynamic and functional languages, and solving more and more complex business problems requires more than just a basic understanding of Java and the list of standard Java-based acronyms. The Big Redesign In The Sky. The first rule of holes: Many software developers take this to mean that if you have a huge legacy mess in your software you should stop working on it and rewrite it from the ground up. Everyone wants to work in a green field. In a green field you don’t have to deal with the mess that’s accumulated over the years.
In a green field you can be clean. In a green field you can build the perfect system. All would be well if only we could start over with a green field. What a crock. Why do green fields become messes? OK, I’ve taken the metaphor too far. Your messes matter. But that’s not what this blog is about. You aren’t going to like it. When you have a big messy legacy wad, what you have to do is… You really aren’t going to like this. What you have to do is… is… No, sorry, wrong story. This does not mean you call your managers into a conference room and tell them that you aren’t going to be delivering features for the next three months while you refactor the code.
But the old system is ! InfoQ: Tracking change and innovation in the enterprise software development community. Managing Software Development: Top 100 Blogs for Development Managers (Q3 2008) Note: The newest edition of this list is available here! Finally, it’s here! The new list I’ve been working on for more than two weeks! This is the top 100 most popular blogs for software development managers.
You might already have seen my earlier list: the Top 100 Best Software Engineering Books, Ever. Do you seek more advice for Software Developers, Team Leaders & Development Managers? Get the book! Management 3.0 Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders About the NominationsOnly blogs that were nominated are present on this top 100 list. The idea of this list is to promote popular blogs that are interesting to software development managers. About StatisticsThe nominated blogs have been rated using five different statistics. Google Page Rank (PR): The page rank for each blog indicates a blog’s relative importance on the Internet (by analysis of the weight of other sites linking to it). Let it be known that I don’t care if people think my system sucks. There, I admitted it. Mail Archives.
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 16:14:10 +0200 From: Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@freebsd.org> Subject: A bike shed (any colour will do) on greener grass... Message-ID: <18238.938873650.1@critter.freebsd.dk> Next in thread | Raw E-Mail | Index | Archive | Help ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Description: Original Message Subject: A bike shed (any colour will do) on greener grass... From: Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@freebsd.org> Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 16:14:10 +0200 Message-ID: <18238.938873650@critter.freebsd.dk> Sender: phk@critter.freebsd.dk Bcc: Blind Distribution List: ; MIME-Version: 1.0 [bcc'ed to committers, hackers] My last pamphlet was sufficiently well received that I was not scared away from sending another one, and today I have the time and inclination to do so. I've had a little trouble with deciding on the right distribution of this kind of stuff, this time it is bcc'ed to committers and hackers, that is probably the best I can do.
How Hard Could It Be?: How I Learned to Love Middle Managers -- Fog Creek Software -- Small Business Advice. Home | GSB Execution Education Blog Network. Coding Horror: On Our Project, We're Always 90% Done. Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management (Pragmatic Programmers): Johanna Rothman, Esther Derby: Books. Anatomy of a Software Development Role: Project Manager.
The Project Management role is the first role in the software development process that isn't on the main line. The project manager isn't a person doing "real work. " The project management role is one that is designed to help ensure that the software development process works as it is intended. The project management role works closely with the development management role in order to facilitate, encourage and prioritize the process. The project management role is perhaps the most clearly defined role within the software development process due to the development of project management as a profession.
(If you've not been following the series, you might want to read Cracking the Code: Breaking Down the Software Development Roles.) While the software industry is nascent, the project management industry is enjoying the advancement of a powerful organization in the Project Management Institute . What's the Project Manager role? Project managers are the keepers of the process. Page 1 of 2. Anatomy of a Software Development Role: Development Manager. In this series, a number of roles have been covered including the following: It is possible to believe that there is nothing left to be done. That all of the roles outlined thus far is all that is needed to make the process work. However, the role of the development manager is critical to the long-term success of the software development team. The role that the development manager plays - particularly when interacting with the project manager - is essential to a continuously improving process.
(If you've not been following the series, you might want to read Cracking the Code: Breaking Down the Software Development Roles.) What's the Development Manager role? The development manager's role can be described as "everything else". The development management role is the role whose purpose it is to keep the vision on track. The development management role works closely with the project management role to ensure that the projects are completed. Getting Started as a Development Manager Page 1 of 2. Anatomy of a Software Development Role: Development Manager. In this series, a number of roles have been covered including the following: It is possible to believe that there is nothing left to be done.
That all of the roles outlined thus far is all that is needed to make the process work. However, the role of the development manager is critical to the long-term success of the software development team. The role that the development manager plays - particularly when interacting with the project manager - is essential to a continuously improving process. (If you've not been following the series, you might want to read Cracking the Code: Breaking Down the Software Development Roles.) What's the Development Manager role? The development manager's role can be described as "everything else". The development management role is the role whose purpose it is to keep the vision on track. The development management role works closely with the project management role to ensure that the projects are completed. Getting Started as a Development Manager Page 1 of 2. Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules: Steve McConnell: Books.
9 Reasons Why Application Developers Think Their CIO Is Clueless - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership. Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations: Robert D. Austin: Books. Managing in the Information Age - Harvard Business School MBA Program. Managing in the Information Age Course Number 1550 Associate Professor Andrew P. McAfee Winter, 30 Sessions Exam In 1987, there were about $800 of IT investment for every worker in the US economy. But so what? And even if they want to be involved, how can non-technologists contribute meaningfully to IT decisions and efforts? Managing in the Information Age (MIA) has three broad themes. (MIA) is devoted to understanding how information technology is changing the business world, and how insightful business leaders use IT to create value and win competitive battles.
If you liked the Zara and ITC eChoupal cases in RC TOM, you'll find MIA's content compelling. Ducati Racing's use of computers to help build the world's fastest motorcycles. We will discuss case studies, read and write blogs, do hands-on demos, share experiences, talk with class guests, and collectively build a course wiki. LEGO SERIOUS PLAY - BUILD YOUR WAY TO BETTER BUSINESS. Coding Horror: Let's Play Planning Poker! Coding Horror: How Good an Estimator Are You? Becoming a Technical Leader: An Organic Problem-Solving Approach: Books: Gerald M. Weinberg. Orthogonality and the DRY Principle. Orthogonality and the DRY PrincipleA Conversation with Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas, Part IIby Bill VennersMarch 10, 2003 Page 1 of 3 >> Summary Pragmatic Programmers Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas talk with Bill Venners about maintenance programming, the DRY principle, code generators and orthogonal systems, and a story about one highly coupled control system: the helicopter.
Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas are the Pragmatic Programmers, recognized internationally as experts in the development of high-quality software. Their best-selling book of software best practices, The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master (Addison-Wesley, 1999), is filled with practical advice on a wide range of software development issues. In this interview, which is being published in ten weekly installments, Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas discuss many aspects of software development: In Part I. Dave Thomas: All programming is maintenance programming, because you are rarely writing original code. IBM Rational ClearCase UCM. Unified Change Management (UCM) is the object-oriented realization of ClearCase, a set of software tools typically supporting the process area software configuration management.
UCM is activity based. The activity object is the basis for sharing information between ClearCase and ClearQuest. In ClearQuest, the activity presents itself as a task on the developers “to do list” query. In ClearCase, the activity connects the task with the actual files that need to be changed in order to accomplish the task (the change set). A new baseline consists of the old baseline plus all checked-in activities to date. By looking at the change sets of those activities, it is possible to know every file that was touched in order to arrive at a new baseline. UCM is also component-based. UCM is also project-based. UCM is a layer built on Rational ClearCase to provide additional software configuration management features. PVOB[edit] Project Versioned Object Bases store UCM metadata. Project[edit] Stream[edit] Peopleware : Productive Projects and Teams, 2nd Ed.: Books: Tom Demarco,Timothy Lister.
Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art (Best Practices (Microsoft)): Books: Steve McConnell.