software development

Ten cautions in case of a self sponsored project

What if you have chosen to develop a product for which you don’t have a customer right now? If you perceive that by the time you complete development phase and the product will be ready to launch if will not be obsolete as per technology or concept, go ahead but take care of following cautions to...

Project Lifecycle – 2012

Phase I: There is nothing called ‘off the shelf” product. It is all ‘made-to-fit’ technique. You specify your requirements and that too at a broader level. For micro level leave a red-mark at areas that need to be looked into at the time of building of software. The more red-marks will mean...

Five ways to workout ‘testing effort”

A new project, a new product development – as a QC head how do you estimate your testing effort? Well, some quick steps for this: 1. Customer requirements: Customer specifications or requirements captured at the time of initial study period would be a quick reference guide for estimating...

Software Developers – Do you imagine, dream and innovate? Continuously?

If answer to the first question is No, start moving into the direction of converting it to Yes. Answer to second question also has to be yes. Let us see what is meant by Imagine, Dream and Innovate and how to adopt them at workplace. Imagination- The ability to create, and paint a mental picture...

If SaaS is acceptable, why not give birth to QaaS?

A software division in an IT company is considered to be a profit center whereas the Testing division is considered as cost center. A set of developers develop software, get it tested by a set of testers, sell it in the market and earn profits. The credits and benefits on success of the software...

Software developer or bug developer

If a person who develops software is software developer, why not the same person developing bugs in the software be called bugs developer. How many developers ethically perform the unit testing after completing development of a unit? It could be - None, a few of them, some of them, most of them or...

Dear software developer – what is your mileage?

I have two sets of developers. Both bunches contain quite considerable number of developers. Let us call it first set of developers and second set of developers. Both sets have their own unique way of functioning and performing. First set of developers work randomly with no documentation, no...

Ten Mantras for a software developer

Lot of efforts can be saved in terms of time and money if we reach to a stage of ‘first time right’ in application development. It has been proven largely that no good application can be built and released without extensive testing. Testing is not developers’ ball game – this is also a well...

User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

UAT or user acceptance testing comes as the last exercise in software testing lifecycle. It is probably the first phase or beginning of customer preparing to takeover the charge of the product. Actually this is a sort of test drive by a perspective buyer who has studied well about a car, has made...

If you don’t change with the ‘Change’ you get [ex][change]d

In my June 15 2009 post – “Do’s (+) and Don’ts (X) in Project Management”...

Outsource in a software project without losing control over it

We learnt in earlier two posts about the strategic decision of a management to outsource a complete project or part(s) of a project depending on certain factors, and the factors respectively. In this post let us see at the various components of a project that are most widely outsourced or otherwise...

Ten symptoms to know if your project is infected with influenza A (H1N1)

10. When you start getting increased number of bugs as compared to earlier releases 9. When your developers stop thinking about quality in code 8. When bugs pass through QC unnoticed 7. When you stop acknowledging quality efforts and start giving more importance to speed and volume of...

Five pitfalls if you are leaving a scope of software development at customer site

Ideally, in a software project, for an offshore customer, the requirement gathering phase should be given an extra care to understand to a maximum extent so that the product developed and tested when ready for implementation at customer site requires no development. Practically, it is very...

Customer’s role in business study and requirement gathering phase of a software project

Usually it is the customer top level person who is project sponsor for a software development project, be it in-house or from a software development vendor. A Project Sponsor may presume that his/her roles during the project would be – sign agreement and papers, assign roles down the line for the...

Vendor’s role in involving customer top management while requirement gathering phase

The most critical stage in software project lifecycle is business study and requirement gathering. Vendor has to be very cautious and careful in understanding all levels expectations from the product they are going to build for the customer. Skipping top level at this stage could be disastrous for...

Two aspects in Change Management in Software Project

Change management is a subset of project management. In any software project change is to be managed during the whole cycle of development and implementation. Requirements once specified by customer at the business requirements study phase does not mean that there will be no change in requirements...

Project Manager’s vision has to be perfect 6/6 for project implementation

No project manager can claim there was not a single problem in any of his projects. But then he is to tackle them. To tackle them he should be aware of them. To be aware of them, he has to have an ability to foresee them than to overlook them. The earlier he envisages those problems, the more time...

Application developed, tested and built well does not ensure successful implementation

It is not only the project manager but all stakeholders who get affected by the project over-run or failure. It could happen due to any reasons. One of the major reasons that have emerged is the lack of vision of the project manager, project sponsors, project directors and other stakeholders to...

10 stages of Risk in software application development and testing

A risk is a bigger than its size if it is not identified well in advance. An identified risk is as risky as unidentified if its assessment is not done. Risk assessment is useless if there is no impact analysis. Impact analysis has no worth if its countermeasure is not identified. Let us...

A good programmer is not always useful

Once upon a time there was a programmer, a very good programmer. Good here means skilled, learned, experienced, and serious. He was appointed by an organization for a large project for a job to write quality programs. He was doing it well and was able to prove his point that he is good for the...

6 mandates for Supplier Organization on Software Project Ownership

Ownership is a big issue in a software project. Customer organization assumes that since they are spending money, it is the sole responsibility of supplying organization to make the project a success. Vendor organization on the other hand assumes otherwise. Who is right? I think both are wrong at...

20 points for organizational self evaluation to check where it stands in Software Project Management

Why software testing effort estimation is important after functional specifications finalization phase?

If we go by quality standards the sizing of software testing effort has to be done before the tester(s) start writing the test cases for the purpose. The estimate will clearly draw out of the functional specifications signed off between the customer and vendor. Without sizing the Testing manager...

10 top “Do this if you want blunders!” in Software Development and Software Testing

1. Quality Goals are meant only for Quality Department: No department other than quality (project management, product development, documentation, general management etc.) has to read, understand and learn about the quality goals of the organization. It is only the responsibility of...

Dear Project Manager – Are your efforts in tune with your schedules (goals?)

During one of my initial management trainings (years back) I learnt the different between hard worker and smart worker. This example I could never forget even after so many years. Example of a hard worker is a person who comes to office in the morning, puts off his shirt, start pushing a wall, and...

Regression Testing “has to be” rigorous – for a “good” cause!

Regression testing comes into picture in “re-testing” of a product. The purpose is very clear – a thorough testing. Regression testing has to be as rigorous as possible, for this reason. And regression testing never happens once, it has to happen again and again till the product reaches at a...

Dear Project Manager – Do you know (during a Project) how important the “Project Status” is?

The most wrong statement from a Project Manager to the management during a project can be – “Everything is as per plan”. This is never, never possible during a project where a software development is required. If this is the statement from the Project Manager, there could be two realities...

Is testing merely a Bug filtering process?

In an organization engaged in software development, usually each software goes through testing process by a separate set of team in the organization know as Testers meant exclusively for the purpose of testing. It matters most what this process is being thought as by the development team, project...

Bugs are invincible, developers have to be convincible

Bugs are often invincible during development, especially in large projects when multiple sub-teams of developers are working on development of different sub-modules of the project. The software developed (or during development) will always appear innocent and bug-free to the team of developers. It...

Top 5 Quality killers in a software product

In software development project what matters most is the timely accurate delivery that gives the benefit of defect free product, customer satisfaction, profits, market edge, growth, motivation across the organization etc. All this is not easy to achieve having so many enemies in and outside the...

Top 10 reasons to prove software development is an easiest job

Software development is the easiest task and requires no development or quality standards, provided you are ready to manufacture software which: - Is full of bugs - Has no buyer - Is never ready to launch - Has success-failure ratio as 0:100 - Is ready for unlimited budget inflow - Is only...

Reference Model in Software Development – a boon for Project Manager

A reference model is a non-arbitrary model of software that is to be referred to when a new software requirement comes from a customer. The reference model will suit and fit most of the requirements given by the customer. The model is the most ideal scenario befitting the technical and functional...

Timesheet – its purpose, use and importance

In an organization engaged in software development business, timesheet is filled by all developers and testers working on any project. Timesheet a sheet of pre-formatted fields in which daily tasks performed by each person are filled in their individual sheet. The intent of timesheet varies from...

The charter of a Project (or Development Manager) at the start of a new Development

The charter of a project manager or development manager at the start of a new project which requires extensive fresh development comprises of many pitfalls or showstoppers. To win over them, the project manager or development manager requires a well defined charter to adhere to. The key points...

When your development team is at job – don’t interrupt

When a new project lands into the hands of a project manager for development, he converts the whole project into smaller units and allocates it to different developers. Developers are divided into the groups based on the work allocated. These teams prepare their plan to develop and start working...

Mr Tester, please feel PRIDE in doing what you are doing at job

Hey my dear Tester, what you are doing is a tremendous effort in streamlining the business of your organization. It is you who understands the business requirements of your customer, learning their business rules, understanding the product built by your development team to cater to those needs,...

15 checkpoints for a Project Manager at the start of a new Project

Usually at the start of a new project, a project manager has to forget the sad points of the previous projects and also to get to ground from the unusual achievements too. At this juncture a project manager is supposed to start afresh with new zeal, a new team or new members in the team, a new...