You Want IT When?

The month of October has just come to a close, and it was an interesting month here on You Want it When?  The month started with the first of a series on metrics:  “Software Metrics: Some Background.”   It was a well read article, and I plan to continue with the series in November. 

I got side tracked a bit after publishing the next article, “Reflection: Unrealistic schedules.”  That’s when the site analytics went through the roof.   It was the most read article in the month of October, and it also has the most readers for a single day of any of the articles published to date on this site.  I’m unsure if the readers appreciated my position on the topic, but it certainly is a subject that evokes a reaction in my audience.

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Purpose 

To clarify some possible misconceptions about the goal of this article series, it is NOT to advocate that there should be unrealistic schedules.  Quite the contrary, I don’t support expecting a team to deliver herculean efforts.  It’s an unsustainable model.  However, dates and requirements are often forced upon software teams, and they often have little ability to influence the commitments, both in date and content.  The goal of this series is to outline a model to successfully manage through these challenging circumstances for the benefit of the company, the team, and yourself.

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Scott Sehlhorst, who writes  Tyner Blain, a blog dedicated to software product success, and I had a debate over email about outsourcing.   Scott recommended a topic and I decided to focus the discussion on his concern as Scott describes it, “… it (outsourcing) is a recipe for long term failure.”  While I prefer the old model of developing software entirely in house with teams working all under one roof, I believe outsourcing is an inevitable change that needs to be accepted, and the specious predictions of the demise of American corporate competiveness are mistaken.  Read the discussion, and please join in and share your views.

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