This weblog is an attempt to plug in to conversations around delivering software in an agile, but controlled manner. I work for a small consulting group where I luckily have the opportunity to spend time and mental cycles looking to improve the delivery of our projects. The consulting group I work for delivers projects in the mainstream integration and j2ee server spaces. We're on the cusp of SOA style work, as soon as our customers ask us for it, we'll deliver this style of thing. This weblog will deal with the experiences I have trying to improve delivery capability whilst maintaining agility. I also work in the delivery group, so sometimes billable work means I have to take my eye off these improvement activities.
Some items I'm planning to look into are firstly, estimation. In my opinion this is one of the most woefully performed tasks in our line of work. This arena has two parts, the estimation of size and the corollary of effort. The past few months I've been looking at Function Points and have had some interesting struggles in trying to apply it to integration style applications. At the same time I've been looking at creating a performance improvement process around estimation for our developers. I'll talk about this too. After getting some self-improving process around estimation I wish to take a look at risk and creating a project culture where everyone is focued on risk every day.
The physical realisation of these process improvements is a dashboard style application for each individual, project and the organisation. With this cockpit, I hope to be able to align the interests at the individual, the project and the organisational levels. The work I'm doing is not unique, it's a cherry picking of the best of Agile, CMMI, ITIL, etc that helps us deliver a reliable and transparent solution to our customers. In the larger environment out there, there are many examples of bits and pieces of what we're doing. We think we're being quite clever, are we? The more I talk about this to people, the more clever things I found out they're doing.
What I am getting out of this? As mentioned above, I'm looking to plugin to conversations around topics of interest. As well, I'm using the writing as a vehicle to focus my thinking. Not to mention the self-promotion efforts such as these provide. It's "brand me" afterall.
