The business manager's guide to software projects : a framework for decision-making, team collaboration, and effectiveness

Every day, successful software projects scale and sustain businesses of all sizes and across all industries. Unfortunately, the reality is that many software projects still fail. The reasons behind these failures are seldom due to the underlying technology. Misunderstandings and communication barriers lead to wrong decisions, missed opportunities, communication breakdowns, or worse—huge economic loss. In this digitally connected world, business professionals can't afford to be hands-off on technical projects, but they also can't be expected to have technical certifications. They have first-hand knowledge of the business processes, are subject matter experts in software requirements, and they finance the projects. Even C-level management or board members need to rapidly gain just enough understanding of technology to make mission-critical decisions for businesses to survive and flourish. In most software projects the number of non-technical stakeholders far exceeds the number of techies. This book distills the world of software projects into simple terms and relatable metaphors for even the most technically adverse reader. Real-life examples, entertaining analogies, and hand-drawn illustrations will stick with readers throughout their own software projects, bolstering their success. Business requirements, use cases, process flows—the list goes on. It's all broken down in this game-changing book aimed at delivering for business and tech teams what DevOps has done for developers and operations. What You Will Learn Know the importance of good business requirements and how to write them Identify the most important business roles, key decisions, and critical activities involved in software projects Strengthen collaboration between non-technical and technical teams Grasp common software project terminology, required for non-techies Understand the software development life cycle Gain insight on the common software project methodologies and how they differ Understand what software developers do at a high level Who This Book Is For Non-technical business professionals (such as small business owners, startup founders, or employees of a business of any size or industry) who need to secure and implement a software solution. The reader may supervise or collaborate with technical teams, and may be a (beginning) software developer looking for practical insights and better ways to communicate with business colleagues. Table of Contents About the Author About the Technical Reviewer Acknowledgments Preface Introduction Who This Book Is For How to Use This Book Structure of the Book References The Value of Metaphors Chapter 1: Architecture and Construction Chapter 2: Planning and Scope The Right Dimensions Hogwarts Castle—Keeping Within a Budget Working Together Ski Resort—Software Development Methodologies Cranes—Knowledge Workers Chapter 3: Teething Troubles Conceptual Mistakes Conceptual Mistake Example 1—Different Measurements Conceptual Mistake Example 2—Where’s the Restroom, Please? Conceptual Mistake Example 3—Where’s My Suitcase? Conceptual Remedies Fixing Issues Centrally—Why Is the Tap Water Dirty? Beauty vs. Practicality Chapter 4: Greenfield Construction Houses and Cable Cars—To Buy or to Build? Hollywood Façades—The Work Behind the Scenes Chapter 5: Laying the Right Foundation Sydney Opera House—Experimental Projects The Show Must Go On—Complete Replacement Chapter 6: Renovating and Extending Unforeseen Work Chapter 7: Technical Debt Clearing Up the Mess Three Heating Systems—Consolidating Redundancies The Leaning Tower of Pisa—Adding New Features Preserving Know-How Chapter 8: Maintenance Swimming Pool Water—Incomplete Data Loads Occasional Maintenance Tasks Chapter 9: Differences Between Physical Construction and Software Development Chapter 10: More Metaphors Dentistry—Choosing the Right Tools Deep Roots—Linked Systems Gently Down the Stream—Data Flow Measuring Quality Chapter 11: The Practical Side Chapter 12: Plan and Prepare Getting Off to a Good Start Executive Support Work Culture Working Better Together Integrating the Teams Invest in Employees Realistic Timelines Managing Dependencies IT Infrastructure Supporting the Development Teams Automation Outsourcing Accountability Aligning the Strategy The Benefits of Agility Setting Out Project Design Project Success Milestones Project Organization Responsibilities Methodology Managing Risks Interacting Successfully Active Listening Effective Communication Assumptions Excessive Jargon Ubiquitous Language Differences of Opinion Dos and Don’ts Feedback Motivation and Demotivation Differences of Opinion Managing Stakeholders Communication Equipment Software Project Culture Leadership Working Together Fail Fast Time Management Business Logic Thinking Things Through Documentation Chapter 13: Define Buy vs. Build Teams Rockstar Programmer vs. Rockstar Team Stakeholders The Right People for the Job Team Pitfalls Requirements Defining the Requirements Waterfall vs. Agile Requirements User Requirements User Stories and Use Cases User Stories Use Cases Elements of a Use Case Decide and Be Precise Your Dependency on Others Your Impact on Others System Interfaces as Contracts Quality Data Quality IT Audits Security and Data Access Security Data Access Software Design High-Level Design Low-Level Design Detailed Planning The Trouble with Estimates Prioritizing Test Planning Maintenance Planning Handling Changes Pitfalls—Part 1 Chapter 14: Develop Getting Into the Flow Effective Communication The Right Tools for the Job Design Patterns and Other Best Practices User Interface Software Versioning Coding Chapter 15: Test Types of Tests User Acceptance Tests (UATs) Unit Tests Integration Tests System Tests Regression Tests Penetration Tests Smoke Tests Load and Performance Tests Business Readiness Tests A/B Tests Test Automation Test Data Further Aspects of Testing Chapter 16: Training, Going Live, and Maintenance User Training Support and Maintenance Monitoring and Analytics Going Live Pitfalls—Part 2 Chapter 17: The Technical Side Chapter 18: Coding and Design Theme Parks, Jenga, and More—Structuring Code System Interfaces Scalability in Software Projects Scalable IT Systems Scale-Up Scale-Out Scale-Down and Scale-In Reasons for Scaling Bottlenecks Sports Stadium—Software State Chapter 19: Metaphors for Technical Terms Who Are You? What Are You Allowed to See? Winter Stock—Caching Data To Wait or Not to Wait Boomerang—Synchronous Doing Something Else in the Meantime—Asynchronous Fire and Forget Airport Conveyor Belt—Memory Leak Switch Off the Lights—Bits and Bytes Chapter 20: Tricky Areas in Technical Development Dates State Cache Spot the Difference! Interfaces to Legacy Systems Testing and Test Data Messy and Undocumented Code Base Search Feature Performance Chapter 21: To Sum Up Appendix A: Collaboration Roles in Software Projects General Project Roles Scrum Project Roles Manifesto for Agile Software Development Principles behind the Agile Manifesto More on Communication Activating Our Senses Choosing the Right Communication Channel Meetings Presentations High-Speed Talking Powerful Voices Knowledge Sharing Givers and Takers Business Teams Making Their Own Tools Appendix B: Glossary Appendix C: References and Further Reading Referenced Books and Publications Referenced Online Sources Further Reading Index Almost every company today is becoming a software company to some extent, yet software projects still suffer a high failure rate for a multitude ofreasons. A better understanding between IT and business teams will help avoid common pitfalls. Helping to fill the knowledge gap between IT teams and business specialists. Examples are used for making technical topics clearer.