Amr Elssamadisy and Deborah Hartmann have written an article, The Secret Sauce of Highly Productive Software Development, asking us to consider that there may be one common attribute to all software development projects that, if focused upon and improved, can make productivity soar. In fact, they implied that many of our most successful teams are already leveraging this common attribute today.
They claimed that the attribute is a team’s ability to learn and learn quickly. Learn about what? Everything, each other, the technology, the domain, the customer, etc. A team that learns quickly succeeds faster.
They start off asking us to consider this hypothetical situation:
When they presented this hypothetical situation to their students – many of them with 20+ years experience in building software – they typically respond with anywhere between 20% to 70% of the time. That is, rebuilding a system that originally takes one year to build takes only 2.5 to 8.5 months to build.
Are teams truly harnessing this power of "lessons learned" in all their practices?
The full article presents a thought-provoking point of view to software development in general and Agile software development in particular.
They claimed that the attribute is a team’s ability to learn and learn quickly. Learn about what? Everything, each other, the technology, the domain, the customer, etc. A team that learns quickly succeeds faster.
They start off asking us to consider this hypothetical situation:
Suppose I was your client and I asked you and your team to build a software system for me. Your team proceeds to build the software system. It takes you a full year – 12 months – to deliver working, tested software.
I then thank the team and take the software and throw it out. I then ask you and your team to rebuild the system. You have the same team. The same requirements. The same tools and software. Basically – nothing has changed – it is exactly the same environment.
How long will it take you and your team to rebuild the system again?
I then thank the team and take the software and throw it out. I then ask you and your team to rebuild the system. You have the same team. The same requirements. The same tools and software. Basically – nothing has changed – it is exactly the same environment.
How long will it take you and your team to rebuild the system again?
When they presented this hypothetical situation to their students – many of them with 20+ years experience in building software – they typically respond with anywhere between 20% to 70% of the time. That is, rebuilding a system that originally takes one year to build takes only 2.5 to 8.5 months to build.
Are teams truly harnessing this power of "lessons learned" in all their practices?
The full article presents a thought-provoking point of view to software development in general and Agile software development in particular.
