// archives

software development

This tag is associated with 5 posts

Automated patterns considered harmful

By dlambert ⋅ June 30, 2010 ⋅ View Comments

A couple years ago, if you read some of the “best practices” stuff coming out of Redmond, you’d have thought that software factories were going to transform software development.  Thankfully, this turns out not to have been the case.  I never met a software factory I didn’t detest almost immediately, and I’m glad the idea [...]

Fixed bid isn’t nirvanna

By dlambert ⋅ December 31, 2009 ⋅ View Comments

When a business wants a custom software deliverable, there’s a basic decision to be made about how this software is sourced, or procured.  Like a buy-vs.-lease decision when you go to the car dealership, the business has to decide first if they can and/or will develop the software with internal resources, and if not, they [...]

Agile Leadership: Methodology Ain’t Enough

By dlambert ⋅ November 4, 2009 ⋅ View Comments

It’s a running joke in software development that as soon as someone demonstrates that he’s a good software developer, he’s promoted to management, whether he wants it or not. Image by Cappellmeister via Flickr In recent years, of course, many companies have addressed this to some extent, and it’s now just as common to see [...]

Feet on the ground

By dlambert ⋅ August 4, 2009 ⋅ View Comments

Here’s your free management tip for the day: get out of your chair and go see what’s happening on the floor. Every summer, I go to Boy Scout summer camp with my son.  Although this passes for vacation, it invariably ends up being a management clinic.  You might think you see where I’m going with [...]

Process isn’t for “relaxed” projects

By dlambert ⋅ March 8, 2005 ⋅ View Comments

I’ve been working through some interesting process issues with my employer’s CTO and head of Product Management. The thrust of these discussions is that we’ve revised our Product Planning and Product Development processes, and I’m currently working on documenting what we’ve agreed upon. No sooner had we come up with a plan, however, than a “highly important” project sprung up, prompting discussions about suspending parts of our process because this project was so important. I’ve managed to stop my head from spinning long enough to gather some thoughts…. (read on for more)

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