Hi all,

I am studying the topic of how does a modern software company manage and
organize the software engineering and development efficiently and
productively?

Could anybody give me some pointers and references?

Thanks a lot!

Michael wrote:

> I am studying the topic of how does a modern software company manage and
> organize the software engineering and development efficiently and
> productively?
>
> Could anybody give me some pointers and references?

Google "Agile Development", "Test Driven Development", and "Extreme
Programming".

Here's a citation:

http://www.tekrati.com/research/News.asp?id=7537

The relevant bit:

Highlights from Foote Partners Hot Technical Skills and
Certifications Pay Index, Q2 2006 [...]

In noncertified skills, the "Enterprise Business Applications"
skills and "Applications Development Tools and Platforms" categories
showed the strongest gains over the last 12 months. Strong
performers include: SAP modules: Payroll, PS, HR, SD, CA, CO, FI;
Oracle enterprise applications; Rapid Applications
Development/Extreme Programming(XP); NetWeaver; Oracle developer;
Eclipse; C++; C; Visual Basic; MQSeries.

That is a survey showing people with XP on their resume get a salary kick
relative to Brand X...

"Michael" <michael.monkey.in.the.jungle> wrote in message
news:7ik1
>
> I am studying the topic of how does a modern software company manage and
> organize the software engineering and development efficiently and
> productively?

Check out the current issue of Communications of the ACM. Interesting
article on newer approaches to software engineering management.

Richard Riehle

>I am studying the topic of how does a modern software company manage and
>organize the software engineering and development efficiently and
>productively?

Mostly, they don't.

J.

"JXStern" <JXSternChangeX2R> wrote in message news:7um5
> >I am studying the topic of how does a modern software company manage and
>>organize the software engineering and development efficiently and
>>productively?
>
> Mostly, they don't.

ROLFLMAO

I think Phillip has stock in Google. :)


"Phlip" <phlipcpp> wrote in message news:2250
[..]

James Bond 007 wrote:

> I think Phlip has stock in Google. :)

I wish!

(Oh, and the OP might want to Google for what Google's process is, too! ;)

On Fri, 4 Aug 2006 19:14:42 -0500, "James Bond 007" <007>
wrote:
>> >I am studying the topic of how does a modern software company manage and
>>>organize the software engineering and development efficiently and
>>>productively?
>>
>> Mostly, they don't.
>
>ROLFLMAO

Well, it's the truth, and someone had to say it, though it's not all
that funny. Over the last three years I've done contract work in,
let's see, eight shops, and interviewed at maybe another dozen deeply
enough to get a good idea of their processes. A few of the larger
ones at least gave lip service to one or another standard disciplines,
most of the others proudly bragged that they were too busy to use
defined processes, or somesuch. Several made ad-hoc changes to
production systems on a frequent (more than daily) and totally
uncontrolled basis. Most had horrible problems that mapped directly
to a lack of best-practices, shall we say, in everything from process
to technical standards.

But you know what my favorite topic is these days? Physical work
environment. Major and profitable shops give developers six feet of
bench space in a room containing fifty to five hundred people, and
that's it. It's almost an unexpected luxury nowadays to see a
developer with even the tiniest private cubicle. One place, admitedly
about to move to new digs, had people shoulder to shoulder, with no
more space than a tv tray. And you know what, lots of developers seem
to love it! They manned their tv trays, in a room too dark to read
anything beside the keyboard unless they had auxilliary lights, and
they didn't have any such lights.

"Efficient and productive?" ROFLMAO.

J.

"JXStern" <JXSternChangeX2R> wrote in message
news:1aur
> On Fri, 4 Aug 2006 19:14:42 -0500, "James Bond 007" <007>
> wrote:
>
> Well, it's the truth, and someone had to say it, though it's not all
> that funny. Over the last three years I've done contract work in,
> let's see, eight shops, and interviewed at maybe another dozen deeply
> enough to get a good idea of their processes. A few of the larger
> ones at least gave lip service to one or another standard disciplines,
> most of the others proudly bragged that they were too busy to use
> defined processes, or somesuch.

That is also consistent with my experience (only I am not able to see thru
the misrepresentation as quickly as you)

>Several made ad-hoc changes to
> production systems on a frequent (more than daily) and totally
> uncontrolled basis. Most had horrible problems that mapped directly
> to a lack of best-practices, shall we say, in everything from process
> to technical standards.

This I have never seen
[..]

On Sun, 06 Aug 2006 22:18:51 GMT, "David Lightstone"
<david._NoSpamlightstone> wrote:
>>Several made ad-hoc changes to
>> production systems on a frequent (more than daily) and totally
>> uncontrolled basis. Most had horrible problems that mapped directly
>> to a lack of best-practices, shall we say, in everything from process
>> to technical standards.
>
>This I have never seen

Sure you have, it's as common as dirt.

* Lack of configuration management leads to system crashes - and no
rollback.

* Lack of error handling standards in code leads to system crashes,
and a week of running around in a panic.

One I've spent much of the last few years cleaning up:

* Building apps without anyone educated in the technology, esp the
database tier, so that major parts of the app are built without any
conception of best-practices.

J.

"JXStern" <JXSternChangeX2R> wrote in message
news:attm
> On Sun, 06 Aug 2006 22:18:51 GMT, "David Lightstone"
> <david._NoSpamlightstone> wrote:
>>>Several made ad-hoc changes to
>>> production systems on a frequent (more than daily) and totally
>>> uncontrolled basis. Most had horrible problems that mapped directly
>>> to a lack of best-practices, shall we say, in everything from process
>>> to technical standards.
>>
>>This I have never seen
>
> Sure you have, it's as common as dirt.

You should understand I only do realtime embedded (and my own database
application). I really have no contact with the productionm system. I don't
even get to deal with the internal validation group.

>
> * Lack of configuration management leads to system crashes - and no
> rollback.

This I have never seen. On everything I have done there has always been some
sort of configuration management (even if it is only making a copy of the
directory tree before making any changes). The closest that I have come is
overextending myself when making changes (trying to do to much at one time),
resulting in a need to do a bit of code unraveling (thank you BeyondCompare
2)

>
> * Lack of error handling standards in code leads to system crashes,
> and a week of running around in a panic.

This is a phenomena I have sort of seen. Semi formulated standards or
standards not properly communicated to co-workers. Basically a poor
architecture


>
> One I've spent much of the last few years cleaning up:
>
> * Building apps without anyone educated in the technology, esp the
> database tier, so that major parts of the app are built without any
> conception of best-practices.

I will chalk this up to not understranding the architecture. This is common.

>

Michael wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I am studying the topic of how does a modern software company manage and
> organize the software engineering and development efficiently and
> productively?
>
> Could anybody give me some pointers and references?
>
> Thanks a lot!

One of the standards being pushed is Capability Maturity Model?
Integration (CMMI)
http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmi/general/general.html

"The recognized standard for software process certification is Carnegie
Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute's Capability
Maturity Model® (SEI CMM®) for Software. SEI establishes rigorous
standards for attainment of their certification at Levels 1-5 of the
CMM. Each level is a well-defined evolutionary plateau and provides a
foundation for continuous process improvement. Assessments are based on
intensive review of an organization's software development and
improvement processes. SEI trains and authorizes Lead Assessors and
maintains the methodology by which assessments must be conducted. Only
28.5% of all assessments reported to the SEI achieve Level 3 or above.
Only 9.1% achieve Level 4 or higher and only 3.7% achieve Level 5."

ArkGunSlinger wrote:
> Michael wrote:
>
> One of the standards being pushed is Capability Maturity Model?
> Integration (CMMI)
> [..]
>
> "The recognized standard for software process certification is Carnegie
> Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute's Capability
> Maturity Model® (SEI CMM®) for Software. SEI establishes rigorous
> standards for attainment of their certification at Levels 1-5 of the
> CMM. Each level is a well-defined evolutionary plateau and provides a
> foundation for continuous process improvement. Assessments are based on
> intensive review of an organization's software development and
> improvement processes. SEI trains and authorizes Lead Assessors and
> maintains the methodology by which assessments must be conducted. Only
> 28.5% of all assessments reported to the SEI achieve Level 3 or above.
> Only 9.1% achieve Level 4 or higher and only 3.7% achieve Level 5."

Phlip's response dealt with methodology, and it is one of many. JXStern
seems to have answered both the methodology and process aspect, and his
experience does echo a lot of what it is I've seen (I, too, have
generally worked as a consultant/contract programmer for a long time).
This response, by ArkGunSlinger, deals specifically with process. I can
say, from personal experience, I have never been in a shop that I felt
could rate above a two. I am not sure which it is you seek, methods or
process, or both. Just be aware that neither eXtreme Programming (XP)
and other Agile methods are widely adopted, nor do most shops take
seriously the Software Engineering process requirements of the SEI
CMMi. In short, your answer, as JXStern stated, is none.

Bill

Understanding software is not to engineering is a very good steps
towards clarifying this questions.

One interesting paper i read was: "Software is Different" by Boris
Beizer, Annals of Software Engineering 10 (2000) 293-­310.

I will read it again.

Michael wrote:
[..]

It relates to Management Information Technology, how to manage people
and how to make these people work effectively and efficiently.


GRios wrote:
[..]