IT SHOPKEEPING

The Waterfall model has become the whipping boy of 20th century software development.  The idea that analysis, development, and testing are separate, distinct phases of a development project, where time must be allocated to each, and one must be completed before the next begins, is history.  Although it was seldom actually practiced, with time and budget constraints compressing schedules and steps, it was often an ideal to shoot for.  There was some integrity in it, as I recall.  For a long time, we regarded the model as a sign of …

Pragmatic Programmers’ Ship It! by Jared Richardson and William Gwaltney(2006) still hasn’t gone out of style. It lays an IT Shop 101, 202 foundation that’s extensible by the modern flavors of Agile, Scrum, etc.    The upshot:

It’s easy for a software team to become so mired in their daily concerns that they lose sight of the ball.  What is the ball in Softwareball?  Let us answer with another question:  Why do people work in a software shop?
Most people work in the IT industry because it can be a reliable way to make a living.  Making a living requires a paycheck.  This paycheck is the difference between hackers coding on their own time and professionals in the software industry.  Where does this money come from that ends …

The reasons can be many, and require a full analysis of the shop to determine the cause. Look first at the project plan. Is there one? Does it take all phases of development into account: analysis, QA, installation? Is there a clear process of requirements gathering or are new features developed as they arise? Is the project too large for the team? Do details seem to get lost due to tracking problems? Is the product delivered only to find that more requirement arise or new defects are found?
Break down the …

Who are those other people running around your office with numbers on their backs? What base do they play?  Which way should you turn to throw to them?  Who’s on first?  Knowing your own job is fine, but it won’t make you an MVP.  An all-star knows what everyone around them is doing and how to make plays on a team.

Is your software project steep and rocky? Can you predict the weather in your office? How many bodies lay on the side of your project trail?
The best sherpas on Mt. Everest expect failure and death as the most likely outcome. They assume that any grey cloud in the sky may develop into a dangerous fog bank, cold front, or blizzard. Recent powder on angled slopes above could pose an avalanche risk. Too quick a pace could dehydrate the team. Too slow a pace and nightfall may come before they reach …

class ITShopHumanInterfaces
/// by Dan Hermes

{
public object resource;
public object need;
public object product;

public interface ICustomer
{

Every prepared team has a playbook.  What does that mean in an IT Shop?  Poorly run shops have only job descriptions and deadlines.  Everyone is left to fend for themselves.  Instead of feeling like they’re on the same team, this can leave the players at odds with each other.  For example, if the analyst is only focused on their job, a developer who tells them that a spec item they wrote is not technically feasible  may be met with an argument instead of a conversation which may lead to a …

Why are tools so often an afterthought in the software shop? An expense?  A training burden?

Because no one bothers to do the math.

Track your teams activities for a week and in most cases you’ll find wasted hours, unneeded stress and frustration, and a range of festering problems that could be remedied by the use of a good tool.  Excel and Word are good pocket knives but your shop deserves more effective tools.

The way to win at softwareball is to produce a high quality deliverable which meets the business objectives without exhausting resources of time, money, and the trust and patience of the people involved.  Points are scored by the meeting of specific objectives of business functionality, schedule, and budget but it is the sum of successes across the broad range of possible wins which constitute a victory.