Agile Development & Business Goals: The Six Week Solution

by Bill Holtsnider, Tom Wheeler, George Stragand, Joe Gee

Overview

Agile Development and Business Goals: The Six-Week Solution is a guide for the software development process, which can be challenging, difficult, and time-consuming. This process, called the “Agile” process, is unique, and it features several aspects that distinguish it from the classical methods of software development. The book offers readers information about the design, implementation, and management of the different methods of creating world-class software. The book discusses the various reasons that the development of software is a difficult process, and it addresses how software development sometimes fails and why it seldom aligns with business needs. It further examines the risk associated with software creation and the different ways to mitigate them. This book is relevant to software development managers responsible for creating quality software products, and managing software development teams.

• Explains how to employ automation in your development process to improve your company’s profitability
• Introduces a compensation structure that incents your technical talent to deliver measurable results on a predictable basis
• Provides real-world solutions – questions to ask when hiring or which build server software to consider, for example – instead of theoretical discussions

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780123815200
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Publication date:	07/07/2010
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Bill Holtsnider is an experienced writer, educator, and software professional with more than 26 years of experience working in the computer industry. His IT expertise includes working in such diverse areas as stock portfolio management, identity management, and software development. He is the author of six books and a wide range of technical and marketing documentation.

Tom Wheeler has a long track record of building organizations to develop commercial software, including products for financial services and contact centers. He has built, sold and been a senior manager in a variety of different types of companies, including international conglomerates and garage-sized start ups. He first created the Six Week Solution back in the 1980’s and has been fine-tuning it since.

George Stragand is a manager and software developer with over 20 years of producing and managing the delivery of commercial software on time. He has worked for companies ranging in size from startups to multinationals, creating software both for external and in-house use. He still hasn’t found a problem which couldn’t be solved by one more level of indirection or a suitable amount of explosives in the correct location.

Joseph Gee has spent the last 10 years of his career leading and coaching teams through a variety of successful projects and Agile transitions. His advocacy for software craftsmanship has equipped teams for success in small custom shops, large telecom enterprise systems, commercial shrink-wrap modeling software, and, most recently, cutting edge behavioral analytics.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction: Ask Yourself These 10 Key Questions

Chapter 2 The Problem: Why Software Projects Fail

Chapter 3 The Expectations: What It Means for Software to Succeed

Chapter 4 Overview of the Six Week Solution

Chapter 5 The Solution’s Critical Pieces

Chapter 6 Managing the Cost of Change

Chapter 7 Assuring Software Quality

Chapter 8 Integrating Automation into Your Development Process

Chapter 9 Other Software Development Approaches

Chapter 10 Risks with Using This Approach

Chapter 11 Transitioning to the Six Week Solution

Chapter 12 Conclusions

Editorial Reviews

"The ability to think of software development as a part of the business is lacking in far too many organizations.  Many CIO’s report to the COO or even the CFO - as opposed to the CEO.  Technology is only going to become more and more important in the coming years, and the organizations that are able to align this to their financial needs and delivery needs are the ones that will succeed in the new economy.

The ability to show and understand the alignment of a business sector bottom line to these methodologies will give companies some support in leaping the chasm to true Agile development.

This book addresses a much neglected gap between the technical and business aspects of software development.  I recommend it for C-levels and project leads as well. It would also be a useful tool for the senior management that will be responsible for implementing such a solution." —Steve Ropa, Agile Consultant, VersionOne

"All agile practitioners dream of achieving development flywheels that yield high-value features on a predictable cadence. While today’s hubbub about Agile promises this, achieving it and then sustaining on-going momentum are difficult to say the least.

The Six Week Solution provides focus and solutions to many factors that must be addressed for high output teams. The pragmatic approaches found in the book can be directly adopted for new teams or, in some cases, adapted to improve existing agile operations.  I recommend it as useful reading for those wanting a better understanding of the dynamics found in an agile-centered company."—Bill Wood, VP, Product Development, Ping Identity

From the Publisher