Sunday, August 22, 2010

Software development process - which one to use?

If you came to this blog in hope you will find a concrete answer then before you get disappointed let me tell you - I don't know. I don't know like many other including those who do claim they know. Software development process is like a system of political governance one system is not made for everyone. Before choosing one, do not read why one fails but why one succeeds. If water flow process was that bad it would have never been used. Democracy is popular not because it is the best system and everyone who follow are always happy. It is popular because it gives you the best safety net when things start to go wrong. Software development is on the same line. If you get hold of five best believe me you would succeed in any process. If you have an idea and the only one developing it full time, no process is the best process. The process becomes critical when you have varying class of members. Some strong in certain areas and others in some other. How efficient is your business owners? Do they just come to office to flash their shiny cars or they really spend time with your team to delegate the real requirements? Do you produce documents because you think they are ought to be produced or you do think they are good source of concrete referential descriptions. Have you thought if just a blog or wiki could replace your documents in a file? If Agility does work for you then use it. If morning 15min standup meetings with a white board full of yellow stickies sounds ridiculous then you don't have to. If pairing up accelerates the deliverable then yes do it. If one room with a big table makes your team more productive then invest in that instead. It really is what works for you. Don't let articles, blogs, books drive you. Think what you really worked in the past and how that can be modified to adapt to new challenges. Process names are just to publish books read them as a novel not necessarily to become a character of it.

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