Rapid Development added January 22, 2011

Software projects tend to be late, over budget, and filled with bugs. The challenge of developing high-quality software is not only one of developing excellence in the technical aspects of programming but also in the overall process required for effectively managing a software development project. Code Complete deals with essentials of software construction, and Rapid Development provides valuable supplemental material on managing software development processes.

Efficient Development

Before a focus can be placed on improving development speed, it is necessary to ensure that efficient development practices are being followed. Wasteful effort should not be made faster; it should be improved. Topics discussed in the first section of the book include:

• an introduction to the fundamental concepts behind rapid development
• a strategy for realizing rapid development ideals
• classic mistakes in software development
• fundamentals of manaagement, technical aspects, and quaity assurance
• an introduction to risk management

Rapid Development

Once efficient development has been reached (or at least made an important pursuit), efforts to pursue rapid development can be effectively made. The book presents useful theory and practical application of concepts for reducing the amount of development time required for a software project. Elements of this discussion include:

• a consideration of the core issues involved in rapid development
• types of lifecycle planning
• processes for software estimation
• an overview of customer-oriented development
• a discussion of motivation (for managing and leading software teams)
• recommendations for software project teamwork
• thoughts on team structure
• issues surroundng feature-set control
• thoughts on productivity tools
• guidance on recovering runaway projects

Best Practices

The first two sections of the book are primarily focused on theoretical material for effectively managing software development processes; the final section lists a number of best practices for rapid development. These are important because learning from the experiences of software developers in a variety of industries can dramatically reduce the number of mistakes made in new projects. While not all of them are relevant for every project, a great deal of insight is available here and the best way to be equipped to effectively handle challenges in a software development project is to have a broad base of knowledge and experience (whether form personal work or from documentation of other projects) to put to use as required by circumstances.