Form and Substance

There's an old saying that:

Success = Planning x Execution

If you assign a number between 0 percent and 100 percent to Planning and do the same for Execution, you will get a value for Success that ranges from 0 percent to 100 percent. If either planning or execution is missing, your chance of success will be 0 percent.

As the software industry moves toward higher levels of professionalism in software engineering, the great body of experience associated with the SW-CMM, both positive and negative, should be considered.

What is important about the SW-CMM is its substance, not its form. Organizations that focus on SW-CMM-style improvement solely for the sake of getting a "2" or "3" will likely have half-baked planning and half-hearted execution. They are unlikely to achieve either the numeric designation they want or the quality and productivity benefits they should want. This truly is Ptolemaic reasoning letting the substance revolve around the form, instead of putting the substance at the center of the software solar system.

Organizations that focus on the bottom-line quality and productivity benefits offered by SW-CMM-style improvement are likely to take their planning more seriously and execute better. A focus on process allows organizations to become more productive, produce software with fewer defects, take on more risk, improve their estimates, raise morale, and perform better on large projects. Considering the level of effectiveness available to organizations that operate at a high level of process sophistication, it becomes clear that outdated practices like code-and-fix development are the real Ptolemaic reasoning.



Professional Software Development(c) Shorter Schedules, Higher Quality Products, More Successful Projects, [... ]reers
Professional Software Development(c) Shorter Schedules, Higher Quality Products, More Successful Projects, [... ]reers
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2005
Pages: 164

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