Customer Reviews

Outside-in Software Development: A Practical Approach to Building Successful Stakeholder-based Products, 1/e

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We who develop software are told often that we should build software that "delights" customers. Trouble is, precisely how one is supposed to do this is too often left to conscientiousness and integrity alone, without clear guidance as to how one might be most effective. In the Agile community, which in many ways represents the future of software engineering, we are told that the "on-site" customer is the way to go. Trouble is, in practice, it's often impossible or at least unrealistic to get a customer to engage at this level of commitment, and worse, they may not represent the community that cares about our software very well. Here at last is a book that gives us a fighting chance to understand how to delight the people who buy our software.

First, Outside-in Software development expresses the simple but profound idea that stakeholders should be thought of as four essential constituencies: as principals (people who buy software), end users, partners (business partners and others), and insiders. These categories force us to think about far more than end users, as important as they are. What if, for example, we are focusing solely on end users, without really considering what it is that the people who buy our software are hoping to accomplish?

Second, too much of the literature in the software engineering field talks about simple teams of ten building new software for emerging markets, software that is shipped to clients installing the software for the first time. The reality is usually significantly more complex. The chapter on organizational context provides a holistic perspective of the groups we sell our software to -- with a far greater reality reflected than we are accustomed to hearing about.

Overall then, Outside-in Software Development is a clear, pragmatic discussion about a tremendously difficult concept: getting from requirements to code in a way that reflects all of the various stakeholders of our software.

I'm not a developer (though I used to be), and now am on the dark side (marketing/product management). The concepts this book endorse, namely to focus on stakeholders and their needs, is exactly what needs to be done for new products. Unfortunately, I felt as though this book was written for new developers with little real world experience and I found myself looking for something new and useful. It didn't happen. If you really want to understand how to develop products by focusing on stakeholder goals, then try this one: User Stories Applied by Mike Cohen.

It is written for Agile Software development, but the concepts can be applied to any product and focuses you on WHAT GOALS DO USERS REALLY HAVE WHEN USING YOUR PRODUCT. If you understand this concept, you will be most effective at developing products.

First, by way of full disclosure, I have worked for Carl Kessler in the past. What this means, however, is that I can state that the material contained in this book is not speculative, or just simply "theory," but it embodies the way in which Carl has very effectively run large development organizations in developing enterprise level software that truly delights customers, and how John has been instrumental in those efforts.

The other reviewers of this book have already discussed one of the book's key notions, that of obtaining "stakeholder" perspectives as part of the process of designing software -- and it's an important notion that is explored thoroughly in the book. I can recommend the book just based on this one item alone.

However, there are three other key notions that the book addresses which, I believe, set it apart from other software development books. The first is the whole idea of "Consumability." If you've not heard of Consumability, you really need to learn more about it. It takes the concept of understanding a customer's perspective to a new level.

The second key point is how one defines the "success" of a project. For most in the software industry, it means either having shipped a product on schedule or having made the projected revenues (or, perhaps, both). As important as those "successes" are, what "Outside-in Software Development" encourages is that success also be defined in terms of the "success" of the customers of the product -- are they receiving the value promised by the product? If not, then perhaps the product's other "successes" will be short-lived...

And, finally, the last key idea I'd like to touch on (in order to further encourage you to read this book) is that of understanding your customer's organizational structure when designing products. Carl and John do an excellent job of explaining how this perspective is often overlooked by software designers and developers, but how important it is in ensuring your product really does permit your customers to be successful by using your product in their environment.

Highly recommended!

Befuddled by a myriad of software development methodologies, and the incessant arguing between the proponents of these? Kessler and Sweitzer take a slightly different tack. They build their approach around stakeholders. By which they mean 4 groups. End users (=customers, of course). Principals (=executives in your customer companies). Partners. Insiders (=people in your company).

Of these, the partners are perhaps the least significant. They are typically the sysadmins at the customer locations, who have to install and maintain your product. The book doesn't seem to come out and say this directly. But ideally, there should be little or no involvement by partners. For you to actively design your product to minimise the partner interaction is (in general) desirable from your standpoint and even from their's. If only because a typical sysadmin has too much already on her hands, with other products and hardware that demand more attention.

Of course, a given product might necessitate sysadmin involvement. And in this case, you certainly should consult with partners. But just as you should strive for Zero Defects in your team's code, so too, perhaps, should you aspire for minimal maintenance. In the logical limit, that locks out partners. Which is fundamentally different from the other stakeholders.

The book goes on to describe how you should involve the stakeholders. In building use cases, for example. The mechanics of how one does that are finer grained details, left to books like Writing Effective Use Cases.

Overall, the book's methodology is fairly lightweight. Presented as compatible with approaches like Rational Unified Process, waterfall, or various agile implementations. It is certainly not like trying the heavyweight CMMI.

Having worked in the software development industry for 20+ years, one reoccurring issue centers around who is the real 'customer'. While everyone likes to point to the party that will support their position, this book helps define the key stakeholders for any given software project. While the approach to designing software from the user (outside-in) perspective is simple and straight forward, it's extremely powerful by keeping development focused on what business problems each stakeholder strives to address. The topic of consumability is also key to delivering high quality. This is a must read for all software engineers from applications right down to firmware.

OUTSIDE-IN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT: A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO BUILDING SUCCESSFUL STAKEHOLDER-BASED PRODUCTS comes from two respected IBM industry leaders and tells how to build software which identifies project value and addresses key needs. These implementation techniques offer a program and approach any development team can use, making this a top pick for any college-level collection strong in either project management or software engineering development.

"Outside-in Software Development" is about looking at software from the point of view of the stakeholders. As such, it contains definitions of the different types of stakeholders after the chapter one sales pitch.

The flow charts added clarity to the descriptions. The business analysis pitfalls were also useful. I enjoyed reading about the importance of "consumability"- how easy it is for the user to focus on their meta-tasks. Coverage of globabilization (internationalization) and accessibility was good as well. The example stories make the book easy to read. The book also covers transitioning from waterfall and integration with six sigma.

The biook targets all groups - managers, business analysts, developers, etc. They accomplish this well. Overall this book was a good read.