Lean Software Development
Posted Agile Development, Software Project Management, books on Saturday, September 24th, 2005.
I just finished up Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit for Software Development Managers
LSD with 7 Principles and 22 Tools
* Eliminate Waste
– Seeing Waste, Value Stream Mapping
* Amplify Learning
– Feedback, Iterations, Synchronization, Set-Based Development
* Decide as Late as Possible
– Options Thinking, The Last Responsible Moment, Making Decisions
* Deliver as Fast as Possible
– Pull Systems, Queuing Theory, Cost of Delay
* Empower the Team
– Self-Determination, Motivation, Leadership, Expertise
* Build Integrity In
– Perceived Integrity, Conceptual Integrity, Refactoring, Testing
* See the Whole
– Measurements, Contracts
What a great book. I have read so many different software development books and this is one of those few that are the ‘must reads’. I just cannot recommend it enough. The book compares software development to the manufacturing industry, particularly auto manufacturing. It uses Toyota vs GE examples quite often to show how the paradigm level differences were able to grant Toyota huge wins in efficency and delivery. At the end of the day – the software analogy here is a strong one. This is a practical book – that I can say many mental nuggets will work their ways into my daily way.
I found this particular pic interesting:
So what does this mean – be LEAN. Only implement what is the top prioirty work. Deliver it fast, get feedback fast. Do Not waste your efforts doing BDUF (Bug Design Up Front). In stead delay decision making as much as possible, focus on the priorities – and deliver – fast.
As a Scrum user (for the past several projects) I can say that this approach just plain works. Once the stakeholders see that they can have some input after the ‘initial spec’ they are just pleased. Once you can continually deliver working – RELEVANT software – your team will be more highly valued than if you were an ‘excellent task master’ and delivered pristine docs for an already outdated system.
-CD
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Hiring good developers is hard
Posted Developers, work on Friday, September 16th, 2005.
I am trying HARD to hire people – and boy is it hard. (been doing it for years and it is still hard)Senior C# Developers in New York – here’s the catch – it is in Long Island – 45 min outside of NYC. MAN is it hard to get good talent out here. We HAVE an amazing group – world class developers, but MAN is it hard to get em’ out here. We have been doing great top 100 web site projects as well as really large smart client application development. It is all SOA based – exciting and great as dev work goes. I interview person after person, we have professional screening of candidates, many people work hard at this process. At the end of the day – when I am discouraged, we sometimes see those great developers – and I remember that they DO exist and I am re-encouraged. But BOY is it hard to get there.
Also hiring; QA Manager, Business Analyst, SQL Server DBA, 5 more C# Devs in early 2006. It is painful – because we are picky. I often get criticized for being too ‘tough’ on candidates, but – frankly – I am not. If people put something on the resume – I WILL ask about it. I find this amazing pattern – and it gives me a theory. Here it is…..
Theory of Most Desired Skills
My primary method of interview is to allow people to give their own context and talk freely. I say something like “So – what do you like to do in programming world? What are you good at doing? What do you think is key? etc.”. I find that SO often what happens is that people start talking about something they know less about than other things. So – my theory is that developers believe that the areas where they are most vulnerable, where they know the least or perceive as the ‘hardest’ – they believe this is what you want them to know. I have seen it so many times, that I just had to rationalize the pattern. I really believe that so many developers perceive the areas where they are weak to be the most important areas and they just lead themselves right into talking about those weak areas. This is of course awful for them. It hangs a large percentage of unqualified candidates.
One of my favorite interview hangs was with a gentleman who insisted that he was using XQuery. The problem was that there were NO implementations of XQuery at that point in time – just a W3C spec. In any case – he fessed up – what a joke!
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Just some new links
Posted Agile Development, Development Tools, books, c#, java on Monday, September 12th, 2005.
Good book in the making: Agile Planning
http://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/agileplanning/index.php
Download the book, check it out.
Good continuous integration tool
http://draconet.sourceforge.net/
My group is preparing to roll with an automated build tprcess – we shall see.
db4o Open Source Object Database- for .Net AND Java (been working with it – it is great)
http://www.db4o.com/
Resharper
http://www.jetbrains.com
New 2.0 coming out soon – GREAT PIECE OF SOFTWARE I COULD NOT LIVE WITHOUT!
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