Structuring the software design process. I had a great time last week discussing software architecture across a mix of QCon, our software architecture training and the IASA session that I ran. I mentioned this earlier in the year, but we've enhanced our material around the architecture definition process to include much more guidance on how you go about actually designing software when all you have is a set of requirements and a blank sheet of paper. In addition to understanding the requirements (functional and non-functional), constraints and principles; it's really about putting some structure into the diagrams that you might draw during your initial agile modeling rather than drawing up a single very complex and cluttered picture that is hard to explain or understand.
I've already written about not needing a UML tool to undertake the software design process and I normally use either a whiteboard, flip chart or index cards, especially when I'm collaborating on the design with others. Structuring the software design process. Don't Settle for One Network: Build Three - Management Tip of the Day - May 03, 2011. The CEO’s Weekly Checklist // Scott Weiss. As a first time CEO, there were times when I would sit at my desk and think, “What should I be doing today?”
This feeling was especially strong after every financing round closed. After our seed round, we had defined the product and the engineers were coding it. I didn’t code. After I hired the executive team and started delegating, most of the bases were covered. Of course, there is always plenty to do at a startup and the CEO is usually the head cook and dishwasher, but the question of where I should be productively spending my time continued to nag at me. I was pretty aggressive about reaching out to other CEOs and mentors and this question was my biggest area of inquiry: “Hey, when you think back to when your company was my size, how did you spend your time?”
There were a number of suggestions that were specific to the company lifecycle stage like, “Get some alpha customers teed up” or “Get together a launch plan for Europe.” Push the team Set aggressive goals. Sell the vision.