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Experts Face Off on Software Management
There's no one way to approach software process management.
by Brian Noyes

VSLive! San Francisco, February 13, 2003

Watch the video of the keynote!

Rational Software's Alan W. Brown (left) and interaction design guru Alan Cooper

VSLive! San Francisco's Wednesday morning keynote drew laughs, applause, and murmurs of concurrence as Alan Cooper and Alan W. Brown presented a small panel discussion of the challenges of software development. Moderated by Jeff Hadfield, publisher of Visual Studio Magazine, the speakers explored a range of topics including lessons learned, the roles of players in the process, how to approach estimation, and the role and benefit of tools.

The discussion started with each speaker describing their worst-nightmare project and the lessons learned from working on it. Alan Cooper led off by talking about a product where the development team was divided into two camps, each having different viewpoints of what the product was. The problem was that the teams didn't talk or agree, but their software had to. The lesson learned: The organization of your software will usually reflect the organization of the teams that build it—dysfunctional teams will build dysfunctional software.

Alan Brown cited an example in the modernization of the FAA air traffic control system, where different groups of users could not agree on what the system should look like and what the interactions should be. The result was that the only acceptable solution was an online modeling of the paper process in use at the beginning, even though it was clearly inefficient. The lesson learned here: You need to know who the project's stakeholders are, what their individual needs are, and what authority they have in determining the project's outcome.

On the subject of project planning and estimation, Brown identified the problem of two different viewpoints of the development process. One viewpoint is that it is a "black art" that is highly dependent on individuals, and that understanding the individuals' skills and knowledge of the domain should allow you to drive the schedule. The other viewpoint allows for consistency across projects and teams, focusing on small iterations, working closely with stakeholders, and taking up small chunks of functionality and delivering them successfully. He said that interfaces between groups are the key things that drive accountability.

Cooper revealed a misconception in the way we approach software development: We try to fit the process within the same framework as other industrial and engineering processes. He discussed the problem that arises from the uncertainty of programming—the fact that many tasks can take a day if things go well, or a week or more if they don't. As a result, programmers are always at odds with management, leading to self-deception on both sides in terms of how long projects will take.