Software Management

…for people who just want to get stuff done.

But I Never Want to Be a Manager!

Software Management Dimensions

Planning Estimation Execution Retrospect

ive

Project

Milestones

Sprints

Stories

Definitions

Planning

Estimation

Execution

Retrospective

Project

Milestone

Sprint

Story

Waterfall

Planning Estimation Execution Retrospect

ive

Project

Milestones

Sprints

Stories

Agile

Planning Estimation Execution Retrospect

ive

Project

Milestones

Sprints

Stories

Planning

All Plans are Wrong

“No software plan extends with certainty beyond the first

component interaction, or the first unknown technology.”

- Cliff McCollum

“No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter

with the enemy's main strength.”- Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

Planning Techniques

Dependency Planning

Critical Path Analysis

Alternative Delivery

Estimation

All Estimates are Flawed

The goal is to eliminate your biases in a systematic way.

Can you make half of your estimates too low and half of them too high?

In effect, can you average your errors to zero?

Estimation Techniques

Rely on the expert

Planning Poker

The 50th Percentile Rule

Monte Carlo Simulations

Fudge Factors

Execution

All Execution is Hard

Worst challenge is what you don’t know

All development is learning

Don’t lie to yourself orothers

Execution Techniques

Design Reviews / Code Reviews

Pair-Coding

Daily Standups / Reporting

TDD / MDD / Continuous Integration

Issue Tracking / Shared Documentation

Knowledge Discovery

Projects

Project Planning

Consider separate items of business value.

Deliver them one at a time. Don’t interleave all your

business value.

Project Estimation

The further away a deadline is, the less precise it becomes.

You should not estimate > 1 year out.

Expected Duration Date Accuracy

One Week +/- one day

One Month +/- one week

One Quarter +/- one month

Six Months +/- two months

One Year +/- six months

> One Year +/- Unknown

Project Estimation

Always plan to produce something useful in less

than six months.

Even better, do it in one quarter.

Project Execution

• I don’t suggest thinking much about Dev at this level.

• This is where you consider marketing, communications, etc.

• Biggest value is watching Tech Milestones.

Project Retrospective

• Too high-level to be of much value – unless you plan to write a book

Milestones

Milestone Planning

Milestones Can exist at multiple levels.

Group stories in Business-Value sets, with natural tech chunks below that.

Milestone Estimation

Easiest performed as a roll-up of the Stories underneath each.

Add fudge-factors at this level.

Milestone Execution

Track each story regularly. Ideally daily.

Burndown charts should be used here.

Milestone Retrospective

Why was it missed?

What is the impact?

What are you going tochange?

Don’t tell lies.

When a date is missed, it is time to be brutally honest.

Milestone Retrospective

Why was it missed?New knowledge?Difficult problems?Changed business situation?Team problems?

Milestone Retrospective

What is the impact?Slip the schedule?Cut scope?Add resources?

Milestone Retrospective

What are you going to change?Don’t tell yourself lies.If your estimates were wrong here – they are probably wrong everywhere else.Working harder is a poor solution.Hope is not a strategy.

You must accept one of the previous impacts.

What do you change about future milestones?

Sprints

Sprint Planning

Keep your backlogs aligned to your Milestones

Don’t change a planned sprint

Sprint Estimation

What is your team velocity?

How do you know?

Stretch a little.

Leave space for theunexpected.

Sprint Execution

Use Burndowns and Daily reviews.

If you are above the line, find out why immediately.

Address blockers beforeanything else.

Sprint Retrospective

Lots written about this.

Don’t skip them.

Stories

Story Planning

No story should be larger than one person can complete in one sprint.

Story Estimation

If you code it, you estimate it.

Break stories down into tasks and estimate those.

Follow the 50th percentile rule.

Story Execution

Don’t lie to yourself: update your estimate every day.

Story Retrospective

Probably not useful.

Q&A