Stephen R. Palmer Software Development www.step-10.com

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Software Development Process

Recently,  the projects I have worked on have used agile approaches like eXtreme Programming, Scrum, and Feature-Driven Development (FDD). Several of the others were significant projects that successfully delivered using more traditional approaches. The projects that have delivered successfully did not have a particular process in common. What they did have in common was that they each had a good team of people. The bottom line in software development process is: A good process is important but good people are more important. The first statement in the agile manifesto puts it this way  "...value individuals and interactions over processes and tools" (www.agilemanifesto.org).
More on People and Process...

I have worked on projects of different sizes, in different industries, in different parts of the world. No two of these projects had exactly the same ways of doing things even when they were supposedly following the same process. This is simply because no two projects had exactly the same people working on them or faced exactly the same challenges. Therefore, I do not subscribe to the idea that there is one ultimate process that fits all situations.

Having said that, all other things being equal, and I have a choice, I prefer a process based on Jeff De Luca's Feature-Driven Development (FDD)

FDD book

During my time at TogetherSoft, I was also given the opportunity to write a book describing Feature-Driven Development (FDD) as I understood it at the time. FDD is a pragmatic blend of best practices. Highly-iterative and driven by client-valued-requirements, it is also model-centric, focused on high quality results, and generally  applicable for larger project teams than recommended for Scrum or eXtreme programming.
More on A Practical Guide to Feature-Driven Development...

Early versions of chapters and content from the book appeared as issues of the CoadLetter, TogetherSoft's monthly newsletter. Most of these are still available online at CodeGear's developer network web site (dn.codegear.com):

Feature Driven Development
'...Software development process is news again. Extreme Programming (XP) is the cause of much debate on a number of popular discussion forums. Feature Driven Development (FDD), pioneered by Jeff De Luca and Peter Coad, is another process with rapidly growing interest. Superficial similarities between FDD and XP hide a number of very important differences between the two processes.  ..."
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Strategies for Maintaining and Improving Quality
'Delivering high quality software is a stated goal of many development teams and it is a very admirable goal. However, to achieve this goal we need to, firstly, know what exactly we mean by high quality and, secondly, have some clue about how to achieve it? ...'
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Feature-Driven Development to the Rescue
'Much of software development management is about identifying and reducing risk. There are many risks involved with developing software in teams of any significant size; most of them people and process related. ...'
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Integrating Best Practices
'Like all good software development processes, Feature Driven Development is built around a core set of ‘best practices’. The chosen practices are not new but this particular blend of the ingredients is new. Each practice compliments and reinforces the others. The result is a whole greater than the sum of its parts...'
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Projects and People
'...to be successful, unless it is to be used only by extra-terrestrials, our software development process needs to take into consideration the peculiarities, strengths and limitations of human beings...'
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Communication, Communication, Communication
'Those who work in the real estate industry tell us that the three most important aspects of real estate are location, location, and location. The software development process equivalent is communication, communication, and communication. Communication is taking place constantly within a software development process at every level...'
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Accelerated Analysis
"The first process of Feature Driven Development builds an initial, overall domain object model for a project. Modeling in color is the best technique I know of for doing this. A set of workshop style sessions is the best process I know of for doing this..."
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Developer Ailments
"Developers. You got to love them ... or else they leave you ... with a half-coded system and no documentation! ..."
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Chief Programmer Work Folders
'...a short set of notes exploring the recording of artifacts produced during the two engine room processes of Feature Driven Development, Design By Feature (DBF) and Build By Feature (BBF)....'
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I am slowly starting to update my notes on software development process.
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Related
Websites

www.featuredrivendevelopment.com Feature-Driven
Development
Community

www.scrumalliance.com

www.borland.com



Copyright © 2008 Stephen R Palmer. All rights reserved.