As we saw in the last essay, the 80:20 rule seemingly appears in many circumstances.   When I was attending college and working as a programmer during the 80’s, there were some commonly accepted tenets that guided our software development processes and behaviors. 

• 80% of development effort for a product is spent in maintenance, while only 20% is devoted towards delivering the first release.
• It is many times more costly to remedy a defect in the later phases of the SDLC than in the earlier phases.

We didn’t question these beliefs much because they were commonly accepted as true.  Our own experiences supported these beliefs as well.  I’ve spent 80+% of my career maintaining software while the amount of time devoted to delivering a first release has been small.  I bet most of you reading this can say the same thing.  Entirely new product development, where you start from a blank slate, is rare in this business.

80% Maintenance

Think about it: how often do you purchase an entirely new application?  Most of my software purchases are for the newest release of a product that I already own.  Maybe I’m a Troglodyte, but I haven’t purchased an entirely  new application  in many years. I have, though, upgraded to the latest version of many applications within the last year.

In the enterprise space, many projects are about upgrading to the latest version of the Windows OS, Oracle Database, Apache web server, or ERP application, to name a few.  Even in the software product development space, less effort is devoted to rolling out entirely new tools and libraries than effort devoted to upgrading to the latest versions.

Some may say yes, but being first in a space has many advantages.  Does it?  Who remembers VisiCalc?  Turbo Pascal?  Netware?  Netscape?  CPM? There are litanies of firsts that are distant memories.  There’s an advantage to being second in a space.  Google in Search, Microsoft in browsers and office applications, and Dell in Personal Computers are a few examples where being 2^nd, 3^rd, or later to market was not a disadvantage in their eventual success and market domination.

Realizing that 80+% of development effort is devoted to maintenance, the old school developers organized their processes and priorities accordingly.  Being first is rarely the most important objective.  While being first has it’s virtues, dominating your market is a higher priority, and too often the compromises made to succeed at being  first compromises your ability to dominate the market.

The Old School Manifesto

Here’s what the old school programmers and leaders emphasize in their application development efforts:

• Creating a lasting architecture over quick construction of the first build. When done successfully, this saves time, improves quality, and improves time to market not only for the first release but for each successive release.
• Understanding the customer value over doing what the customer tells you. Very often, real customers don’t know exactly what they want nor do they know what’s possible. Customers are sometimes too busy to tell you what it is that they want. It is the development team’s responsibility to understand the need and to use their knowledge and intelligence to create a superior solution. If you’re expecting your customers to tell you everything, you aren’t the team to be building the next thing.
• Emphasizing the up front work over constructing something quickly. Devote 60% of your effort to the upfront work, requirements and design; because when you do it successfully, the last 40% is a no brainer.
• Thinking before acting over acting before thinking. God gave us intelligence for a purpose. Understanding, prioritizing, strategizing, and planning support success.
• Analysis over just-jump-right-in-and-do-something. It always saves time, money, and heartache.
• Believing that if an error happens in the lab once your customers will see it many times, over rebooting the machine and hoping it never happens again. I know; many defects are difficult to analyze and fix. I’ve worked through many nights addressing difficult defects. Just do it. Eventually difficult defects become easy to analyze and fix, but first you must invest to get there.
• Doing superior work over doing just enough. Superior work inspires good people, and motivates not so good people to perform better. I know just enough is fashionable today, but fashionable is just a passing trend.
• Quality over hitting a date. If quality made Japan the top auto manufactures of the world while being 2^nd to market, it must be telling us something. Listen carefully!
• The future over the present. Developing a product is an investment in the future. Investments are rewarding when good decisions about the future are made in the present.
• Change management over change anytime. Change is a fact of life. We get old; we move; things change. Making good decisions about change is necessary for repeatable success. Most changes are not reactions to changing markets but reactions to the leadership’s change in thinking. This too often reflects inadequate analysis.
• Teamwork over individuals. Individuals come and go in an organization but teams remain. Teamwork is the hallmark of a successful product team. Process is a manifestation of good teamwork. Good teamwork is greater than the sum of its parts. It’s through teamwork that superior products are made and delivered. Value the team and the process that supports teamwork.
• Value over commitments. The ultimate goal of every project is to deliver value. Meet your commitments without delivering value, and all you’ll have is a failed project.

Think About It

It’s become fashionable today to live in the present: just look at the debt our society carries from corporations, to individuals, and to governments.   All are carrying unprecedented amounts of debt.  We act and live today like there will be no tomorrow or that tomorrow doesn’t matter.   Would the worldwide financial crisis have materialized if corporate leaders concerned themselves with tomorrow?  When you concern yourself with tomorrow, the present is normally better as tomorrow unfolds into the present.  At the root of old school values was the idea that we are all working to build a better tomorrow?  It’s time that our culture reaffirms that commitment.  Don’t you think?

What would you add or change in the old school manifesto ?