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deployment specialists, project managers, development managers and others
all have a hand in developing the software.
The IT community doesn’t have a standard set of job titles and pre-defined
roles; what one company calls a product manager is an architect elsewhere,
one company’s project manager is another’s development manager,ateam
leader in one is a manager in another, and so on. All these people are in some
way contributing to the development of a software system.
The level of knowledge and experience required to develop a successful
system causes the old blue-collar/’white-collar’ division to fade. Someone
who thinks of a programmer as analogous to a factory worker is making a
mistake: the level of knowledge required by a programmer is several orders of
magnitude greater than that required by an assembly line worker.
The profile of a modern development team looks more like a group of white-
collar managers than a set of blue-collar workers: highly skilled people with
specific knowledge who spend their days making informed decisions – not to
mention working in air-conditioned offices. Consequently, when looking
outside the IT arena, research, advice and inspiration are often to be found
in texts that discuss management challenges.
Thinking Point: Why Do You Want To Change?
This book is going to discuss changing the way in which you create
software. Specifically, I’m going to describe how you can help your team
adopt Agile software practices. Before getting stuck into the task in hand,
it is worth taking a step back and asking: Why? – Why do we want to change
the way in which we do things?
Before you read any further, put this book down and make a list of five
reasons why you’d like to change the way in which your organization
develops software:
&
Try to think beyond immediate reasons such as a recently failed
project.
&
Try to think about why, not what.
&
Try to think about big reasons rather than small ones.
&
Try to think about your company as a whole rather than just your
team: What benefit will this bring?
&
Be honest: if you want to change the team to further your own career,
recognize it – you don’t have to tell anyone else.
You might also want to think about the opportunities that you can see if
you can change.
Now that you’ve made the list, put it to one side. (If you want to hide it,
do so!)
Introduction 5