Steve McConnell is one of the best writers about software practices in our generation. Over decades, each of his books pushes the field forward, and each new book updates his thought with oodles of new data. This book, an evidence-based look at Agile, is no exception. Agile has become a catch-all term for a lot of software practices, but McConnell recenters his study about Agile on what’s most important in a business – getting results.…
Agile methods are just different than traditional approaches, kind of like Einsteinian physics is just different from Newtonian physics. They both have the same aims; they only have wildly different ways of getting there. Instead of estimating software schedules by reality-based values, agile creates abstractions like user stories, story points, and velocities to measure progress. Burndown charts project how quickly a feature set can be released. Maybe I’m an old fogey in the world of…
Software estimation is a somewhat undefined craft. Most coders simply “go with their gut” in estimating a project, and that gut is often wildly off. Alternative techniques involve intense calculations that take a lot of time, but rarely yield enough accuracy to help, especially for smaller projects. Unlike, say, construction or mechanical tasks, software builds represent a creative process where new territory is tread with each project. There’s a learning curve involved, and it’s hard…
Software projects are notoriously difficult to estimate a time-to-completion, especially in the earliest days of a proposal. Sometimes, simple projects can prove time- and resource-consuming, and seemingly hard projects can complete quickly. Because learning is involved in every project, even good project managers struggle with wildly varying possibilities at first. Author Johanna Rothman offers her advice about what to do with this situation. A few pieces of her advice stand out. First, when estimating, always…
Technical Program Managers (TPMs) are a recent phenomenon, particularly in larger organizations that use a lot of IT to achieve value. They combine the technical role and a leadership role in one function to enhance technical value. However, today’s literature on how to excel as a TPM is relatively sparse. Johnathan Stephen Sexton adds his experiences as a Walmart TPM to the mix in this book of homespun wisdom. As a very experience-driven account, he…
Technical Program Management represents a hot field to work in. In today’s world, many have skills to be software developers, and many know how to manage a program of projects, but few combine those skills to manage an entire program of software development projects. In an increasingly digital world, these combined skills are both marketable and valuable and define what a technical program manager (TPM) does. They are force multipliers to projects and organizations who…
Books from the Project Management Institute (PMI) provide standards for the entire industry of project management and program management. ANSI, an American body supervising industry-wide standards, has approved this text as true wherever program management is practiced. Therefore, studying this book can provide a lot of value for your current position as well as any jobs you might attain throughout your career. This book’s tone is not incredibly engaging like a popular book’s tone is.…
Jira is becoming a leading tool for project management at larger businesses, and using it is a skill required for many jobs. This book teaches you how to master Jira processes to manage projects under Agile or Scrum paradigms. Half of this book focuses on Confluence software, which my workplace does not use. Therefore, half of the book was irrelevant to me. However, the Jira sections gave me a formal training that I lacked. It…
Traditional program management consists of guiding a suite of programs for business success. As IT has recently become ascendant in the marketplace, that paradigm has applied to software in a role called the technical program manager. Leading tech companies, like Meta, Apple, and Amazon, have made ample use of this position in their business strategy. The problem is that there is no set career progression into this role. Arpit Agrawal tries to demystify this role…
I work in software at a research lab in an academic medical center. We produce new software to address large problems, locally and globally. Although our organization’s formal structure is hierarchical, our informal structure very much resembles a matrix – not uncommon in research labs. In business, a matrix organization occurs when people report to more than one manager. In my work, most teams I’m near are cross-functional. I recently moved from a developer role…