Recently, as I sat on the Northeast corridor train, the ticket-taker informed us that we would be delayed 15 minutes. As I thought about the impact on my day, a flutter of activity rippled through the cabin. Passengers called bosses, colleagues, wives and customers spreading the news. What was interesting was that the relayed news was different: some people doubled the time, others bumped it up to solid hour and, shockingly, no one made it shorter. As a software project manager, I have had this reaction often. Whenever I received an estimate, I instinctively doubled it. However, as the product manager, I was in a position to drill down and … Read More
Category Archives: Software Measurement
Government Its Own Worst Enemy in Cyber War
Ever a man ahead of his time, Albert Einstein once said, “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” Were he alive today, the only thing he likely would change about his statement would be how World War III would be fought. He surely would look at the threats posed by cyber attacks and surmise the most dangerous weapon of the next world war to be an invisible terror delivered electronically. He would note that the threat could come from any nation state – it would not even have to be a world power – … Read More
Does Moneyball Play in the Corporate World?
In the spirit of “Bull Durham”, “The Natural” and “Field of Dreams”, the upcoming movie, “Moneyball“, looks to be the next great American baseball film. I am excited yet conflicted. I am a big fan of those movies but I happen to be a bigger fan of Michael Lewis’ book upon which the movie is based. And I am concerned that Hollywood will sift past Lewis’ exhaustive research, dodge his insightful observations and a string together a few pieces of Billy Beane’s life in the hopes of creating a romantic sports movie (a spormance). I can’t stop Hollywood so I direct my plea to you: My plea isn’t for baseball … Read More
Measuring Quality & Security in Software
Bob Martin, a principal engineer at MITRE systems, returns in this week’s IT Software Quality Report to discuss the role of software managers in mission critical applications with CISQ Director, Dr. Bill Curtis. Learn the differences between measuring quality & security for physical products versus software. Bob tell us that when discussing “reliability” in software, one needs think about security and how someone might influence or degrade a system to do something that wasn’t anticipated or wanted. Listen to or download this episode now! CAST is a proud member of the Consortium for IT Software Quality (CISQ). As a member, we are committed to participating in the development of global … Read More
Agile Turns 10 – Time to Grow Up
Happy Birthday to Agile Development! You’re 10 years old now; that’s an important age. A lot of things start happening at age 10. The pre-teen years start and things will seem to get awkward. Most important, a lot more will be expected of you. This is probably why Mike Beedle, the author of the first book on Scrum, recently wrote as part of the Agile 10th Anniversary Manifesto series published on InfoQ, “We need to worry about how diluted the meaning of agile is becoming, and focus on real quality.” Sounds like a call for “better behavior” – a typical expectation for any 10-year-old. It makes sense when you consider … Read More
Rumsfeld on Software – Handling Unknown Unknowns
While former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld never spoke or wrote about software (as far as I know), his quip about unknown unknowns during the early months of the Iraq war is well known. No matter what you think of Rumsfeld, his classification applies nicely to software and teaches us a lesson or two about building good software. Some things you can test for right away. Some things you can anticipate and set aside to test for later. But the stuff in the top right in red is impossible to test for and not easy to plan for either. How an application and its environment will change is quite uncertain. … Read More
Developer be Agile, Developer be Quick; Use Automated Analysis, it Does the Trick
All business-critical applications consist of many intertwined components. In Agile Development, these components are built individually in “scrums,” but eventually have to coexist and work together, possibly across many layers (UI, data, business logic). This underscores a fundamental problem among applications created using Agile techniques: How do you ensure that the end product performs reliably and dependably outside the production environment? Some believe that to ensure software quality requires setting aside the technology and focusing just on the basics – the people and the process. This was the stance taken by Bola Rotibi recently in her piece on Application Development Trends titled, “Want Quality Software? Focus on People and Processes … Read More