Business managers -- whether consciously or unconsciously -- view software as a manufacturing exercise. They force software project managers to predict the unpredictable accurately. This strategy has a fatal flaw: it doesn't work. Managers need to replace it with an approach that allows their teams to end up with software real people want when the project is over, not what those people thought they wanted at the beginning. This book presents a realistic strategy for creating great software when requirements start off ambiguous and become clear only as teams moves through the fog. The author teaches readers to cede control of key elements to the development team, thereby helping the team produce more robust applications in a more timely fashion.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
The IT professional's guide to delivering exceptional software development projects.
One of the biggest problems facing businesses today is the effective delivery of software development projects. Recent surveys show that almost 75% of software development projects are either over budget, late, undeliverable, or cancelled outright. After more than 30 years of making software in an increasingly global economy dominated by technology, why is creating software still so hard?
Software development expert Roy Miller answers this and other questions in Managing Software for Growth, the first truly insightful guide for industry observers and IT leaders who struggle to make great software despite the challenges. Contents include:
- The nature of the beast—why software projects fail, and what to do about it
- How rigor, formalism, and "science" have created barriers to software development
- Chaos, complexity, and emergence in complex adaptive systems
- Moving beyond the "manufacturing mindset," which makes no sense for software
- Practical advice on how to start growing software
From philosophical evaluations of software engineering to nuts-and-bolts realism, Miller reveals the inner workings of the software development process in a way that will change the way people think about IT. Software development needs radical change to meet the challenges of the new century. For anyone involved in the process of software creation, Managing Software for Growth can help begin that process.
About the Author
ROY MILLER has spent over 10 years in IT, beginning with several large projects as a team lead and project manager at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), and most recently as a team lead, manager, and XP Coach at RoleModel Software. During that decade, he kept telling himself, "There has to be a more realistic way to create software people want and need." Managing Software for Growth is the result of his desire to prove it. Miller is the author of numerous articles and papers, and is the co-author of Extreme Programming Applied (Addison-Wesley), which he wrote with Ken Auer in 2002.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The premise is challenging, not necessarily flawed,
By
This review is from: Managing Software for Growth: Without Fear, Control, and the Manufacturing Mindset (Paperback)
One of the oldest dilemmas in software development has been "Is software development art or science?". Of course, it's neither, but the science and engineering mindset has generally held sway, and deviations from this approach have been treated as aberrations, to be eliminated so that we could be more 'scientific'. But what if that's the wrong direction?Roy Miller explores the origins of the scientific/engineering/manufacturing mindset in software engineering, and then goes on to suggest reasons why this metaphor might not be appropriate for modern software development. He weaves strands from a number of disparate disciplines, including biology and chaos theory, to suggest alternative approaches to software development. Multi-disciplinary approaches are a common theme in modern scientific research, and it's good to see someone bringing these influences to software development. Roy's fundamental message (and he of course justifies this in detail), is that if you're looking for predictability in software development, you better get over it. Software development is a messy, human endeavour, and if we keep doing what we did, we'll keep getting what we got. Roy suggests alternative metaphors and approaches that might be more succesful in growing software. I see that at least one other reviewer has commented that the Taylorist manufacturing mindset can be applied successfully to software development. Even if that's true, it doesn't make it the only game in town, and it's worth reading Miller's work for an alternative. My own experience suggests that the Taylorist manufacturing model only works when a software project is large enough to make individual human differences irrelevant, and that projects of that size are becoming less common, and generally fail anyway. Read this book, even it it makes you uncomfortable or doesn't change your mind. You'll gain at least one new idea, and that's worth the price of admission.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Insightful explanation of agility-vs-manufacturing mindset,
By Brad Appleton (Arlington Heights, IL USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Managing Software for Growth: Without Fear, Control, and the Manufacturing Mindset (Paperback)
I read thru early review drafts of this book made available from the yahoo-group website for the book. What I liked most about it is that it was able to successfully convey to me not only the "manufacturing mind-set" it describes (in contrast to agility), but it also conveyed the foundations of that mindset and why it is held by so many in the industry. I never really had a good enough appreciation for that until reading this book.I think the book also does the same "justice" to the agile-mindset for "growing" software thru "emergence". It describes the foundations of agility and emergence, where they come from, what they mean, and what evidence there is and isnt for their validity. The book touches on elements of Taylorist management theory, as well as complexity theory in an approachable manner that doesnt require an advanced degree in math or physics (which is a plus :-). I also particularly like the annotated biliography at the end of the book. It lists more than just the titles of the "giants" the author stood upon to write this one, it excerpts and distills the key central concepts from each one that are relevant to the book.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Much needed work for professionals,
By
This review is from: Managing Software for Growth: Without Fear, Control, and the Manufacturing Mindset (Paperback)
This is a very important work that helps the software industry to take much needed steps to gain reliability and authority again.As software development is unique, due its many singularities in people management, processes, design methods and tools, Roy Miller point us in a very sensible direction accordingly to software development realities. This is a very important work for software development professionals to get skill
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