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Developing Software As If Your Life Depends On It

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Developing Software As If Your Life Depends On It!

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Be honest – how many successful software development projects have you been a part of? Count 'em.

Whether you work for a large deep pockets organization, a mid-size company, or a struggling startup, you know how quickly good projects turn bad (often before the project even begins). And, in many cases the health of the enterprise is at stake (as well as your job).

This discussion focuses on the skills and attitudes you and your colleagues must have to deliver solutions. The perspective of the discussion is not just the risk of life-and-death of the project, but of you, the participant. Regardless of the role you play, your life depends on meeting the project objectives – certainly your professional life may depend on it. This is not another "and make sure you have sponsorship.." type of discussion but a down and dirty decomposition of key dimensions of software solution delivery.

The working environment is always changing. It's dot today and dash tomorrow. You are likely to move with greater frequency to different companies each with a different cast of players. More than ever you must rely on yourself to assess and make informed decisions about the efforts you engage.

You need to be able to determine the viability of an effort to ensure that you and your team will deliver a solution and survive the effort. Some things we'll explore include:

Is the problem worth the sacrifice? Do you know what it is? Is it the real problem?
Who is participating and can they/will they survive? Can you assess the skill level? Can people really do what they say they can?
Is there a right blend of talent/roles? What's missing? Is there an imbalance?
Is there a plan? Are you planning for the right activities? Is there a process in place? Do you have various paths to take when one of them is blocked? Do you know the right one?
Are the needs and requirements already there? Do you have to go out and get them? How do you get them quickly and inexpensively? How can you determine that you've got the right requirements?
What techniques are used to determine data requirements? Are you integrating with many third-party applications?
Do you design and model or go right to code? Is it skunk work or an attempt to develop a scalable architecture?

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Steven Marcus of Marcus Software Designs, Inc will cover the above topics plus several others in this no holds barred discussion on February 7, 2001 at San Francisco DAMA.

Steven has survived the good, the bad, and the ugly for twenty years – ten years with one of the Bay Area’s largest employers and ten years as an independent consultant. Steven's affiliation with DAMA spans the last ten years. He was President and Resource Director for the Sacramento Chapter and has spoken several times on such topics as: JAD, Object-Oriented techniques, and Problem Definition and Problem Solving.

CopyrightÓ 2001 Marcus Software Designs, Inc.

  

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Last modified: January 29, 2001

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