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The Software Development Organization
Characteristics of an Effective Software Development Organization:
Certainly the proficiency of the development department is a major factor in a
software development organization's success. A
tier-one development organization, however, needs more than just a
great development team.
Having the right people, the right strategy, and the right tactics
are required to effectively deliver great software products.
The Management Team
The management team must possess several key disciplines to get the most out of
their development department investment. Initially, they should have an
explicit corporate strategy. Every project the development team works on
should be categorized under this corporate strategy, and prioritized according
to relevance.
The management team should be disciplined enough to let the development
department complete tasks once they are started. Periodically,
corporate strategy will shift, and some projects will be shelved or
cancelled--this is normal. An effective management team will have a
system in place to examine corporate strategy, the development project
portfolio, and new project proposals on a regular basis.
The management team also needs to have the discipline not to exact timeframes
from the development manager, or team lead, without first giving them time to
examine and discuss the workload with the programmers who are actually
going to perform the work.
The Development Manager
The development manager needs to address the needs of the executive committee,
and the development department. This is covered in the
Role of the Development Manager.
A good development manager uses metrics to measure and predict project
success. These metrics should include the following:
Strategy (Portfolio Management)
-
Hours spent on each project (per programmer)
-
Strategy Alignment (per project time per month)
Yield (Project Management)
-
Predicted total hours to completion (per project)
-
Actual total hours to completion (per project)
-
Historical hours for completion per module (per project)
-
Earned Value Status, or Burn-down status (per project)
-
Commitment History (per programmer)
Relevance (Product Management)
-
Validation (beta test) cycles
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Original Specifications vs Change Requests (scope creep management)
Q/A (Quality Management)
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Number of bugs found in which stage (ie: Coding, Verification, Validation,
Release)
-
Number of testing cycles
-
Time of each testing cycle
-
Bug count drop per testing cycle
The Development Team
The team needs to work well together. They need to enjoy a healthy trust
and understand the difference between functional conflict vs dysfunctional
conflict.
'Bad apples' and bully's need to be weeded out. 360 degree reviews, twice
a year are a good way to gauge who is a bad apple and who is really helping the
team.
Recent Posts on the Software Development Organization...
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In a conversation with a friend once, they jokingly described their inability to play racquetball against other seasoned players as ”They are playing racquetball, while I am just hitting a ball around the room.”
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Anti-Values (3/5/2008 1)
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