Software Development: A Discipline, Not an Art
By Djenana Campara
November 15, 2005 —
(Page 1 of 3)
For years, companies producing software have treated the development process as an art. Unlike the other operations of the company that are monitored, managed and measured using formal business process, software development projects are often the result of ad hoc decisions and activities, with few metrics available to gauge the status or efficiency of a development effort.
The result? By not managing software as the critical business asset it is, companies face escalating development costs, mounting code quality and security issues, and continuous product delays. This art-based, ad hoc approach to software development impacts a company’s top and bottom line, erodes its ability to compete in a fast-paced market, diminishes its brand, and weakens its reputation with prospects, customers, partners and investors.
‘Art’ History
The root cause of why companies revert to treating software development as an art stems from the traditional way in which applications are developed over time.
Typically, the first release of a software product is built on an understandable and orderly architecture, reflects customer requirements and is created by a stable and dedicated team of developers and managers. These greenfield development projects may not rely on formal processes and tools, but the project itself tends to be organized, and the codebase is built from scratch to meet the initial product requirements.
The real problems arise with subsequent releases. Ironically, over time development projects are the victims of their own success. With a successful application launch, management and customers will demand a continuous stream of updates that add new features and capabilities to the once relatively elegant and simple codebase. Follow-on development efforts must overcome three major hurdles: new development teams, an existing code and constantly shifting requirements.
By the time the second or subsequent releases of an application gain momentum, the original development team has disbanded.
The new team is usually composed of a few holdovers as well as new coders—both internal and often others from offshore service providers—many of which have no knowledge of the original architecture, design decisions and codebase. And instead of the ability to create a pure architecture that reflects current project requirements, the new team must modify the application or create new modules on top of an existing, increasingly bloated codebase.
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