Software View

It was the final day of the Agile Processes And Project Management training carried out at PPSL. As recommended for agile teams, I introduced couple of tools to improve the team performance. One was to use a web based content management system (like Drupal, Wiki) to establish communication needs and maintain software models created and documentation of projects only to a sufficient degree.

Grady Booch interviewed by Software Engineering Radio highlighted the essentially needed qualities of a valuable/good/great software developer:

1. Being a good abstractionist
2. Being a good team player with good communication skills

Who is a good abstractionist?

A person’s decision on what is good and what is bad is contextual. And hence, among other factors, the reactions and dynamics of people in a workplace are much determined by the organizational culture. Culture sets a base for the people to reason and guides them in determining what their reactions should be for various forces external to the individual. Thus, growing the concept of egoless working in an organizational culture may prove to be fundamental as a technique in boosting the performance of individuals and the organization in general.

Note: This article carries humor and the estimations techniques given below have nothing to do with CMMI levels (Except for the fact that I am trying to find similarities between the real estimation techniques and the humorous techniques as found in Weinberg’s post.). But I have given some of my “true” views on estimations at the bottom. - Kamal

Weinberg the Great would write in his post Estimating Projects: A History of Failure about the mantic art of project estimation suitable for different CMMI (Comprehensive Magistrate of Magical Integrity) levels of maturity. I could digest it up to this level: