Why does “Free” always seem to have a catch to it? We know there’s “no such thing as a free lunch,” that “freedom isn’t free” and that if you get something for free, you probably got what you paid for. Even in the tech industry, when we talk about open source software, we immediately think “free”, yet instantly jump to the old caveat of “think free speech, not free beer,” the idea there being that open source is the layer-by-layer developed product of well-intentioned developers seeking to produce high quality software that competes with established applications. Lately, though, there are some in the industry who are questioning whether or not … Read More
Category Archives: Software Demystified
Structural Quality Must Be Part of Agile Vocabulary
I cannot believe how much our education system has changed. When I went to kindergarten, most of curriculum revolved around getting along with others (a lesson some will argue never took with me) and some basic verbal skills. I learned at my daughter’s kindergarten orientation that blocks and finger painting have been replaced by geography, math, science and civics. I walked out of her kindergarten orientation concerned whether or not my daughter would be ready for school. As kids have a tendency to do, though, my little girl came home on her first day and happily said her favorite part of the day was “voca-libraries” (actually, she said the bus … Read More
Is Being Like Steve Jobs Easier Than We Think?
Since his surprise resignation as CEO of Apple last week, there have been a plethora of tributes to Steve Jobs and I have enjoyed learning about this iconic figure from his colleagues, employees, journalists and consumers. However, while reading them, something struck me as odd. These tributes supported my personal view of Mr. Jobs as a hard-headed innovator and master designer but, reading through these testimonies and memories, I realized that innovation and design were the products of another characteristic: Quality. Former Apple CEO John Sculley made this comment about Jobs in an ABC News interview last year: ”He was a person of huge vision. But he was also a … Read More
More on Agile at 10…and a Half
Agile development celebrates a half-birthday this month, so I figured it was time to reflect upon my comments a few months ago when I took it to task for not taking software quality more seriously. My reasoning then was that 10 is an age where we begin to expect more out of people and things – a greater maturity. I also sided with the author of the original book on Scrum, Mike Beedle, who said, “We need to raise the quality of Agile implementations and we also need to document the state of the art as it is today, to make it easier for practitioners to envision the future.” Nevertheless, … Read More
Unscrambling Scrum
I’m a big fan of things that make sense. Simple explanations, using metaphors to explain the otherwise inexplicable, incorporating landmarks into driving directions and splitting up large projects to get them done faster are all concepts with which I find favor. This is why, when I first learned about Scrum, it seemed like a valid way to develop software faster, or at least more efficiently. In my mind, it made sense that if you were to build multiple parts of a single application simultaneously and then bring them together, the final product could be built much faster. I am not alone in this belief. Noted business author and contributor to … Read More
Output-Based Application Management
You need an application delivered fast. And you’re willing to pay more to get it done quickly. But how much more should you pay? That depends of course on your supplier’s productivity. The more productive they are, the more they can charge on a per-hour basis. That’s because their productivity enables them to deliver the same size application in fewer hours than a less productive supplier would be able to. Which means that the cost to deliver a function point (function point per $) might actually be less than a supplier whose labor rates are much lower! In other words, a supplier with a higher labor cost can actually be … Read More
Automated Analysis Amends Agile’s Ailments
Time to market is a major consideration when developing software these days. Feeling the pressure of competition, companies realize they need to move swiftly and cannot rest upon their laurels if they wish to remain ahead of the competition and be the company that sets the trend rather than follows it. But the pressure to produce software in short order can lead to software that is the quality of a food prepared by a short order cook – it might suit its purpose, but the quality is far from top-notch. Blessed with Agility To alleviate some of the pressures of producing software so fast, more and more companies – particularly … Read More