Talk to Software Entrepreneurs Meetup on Nov 7th on Software Development practices and outsourcing

1. Software Development
Sri Kanajan

2. Outline
•
•
•
•
Software development methodology
Agile development process
Development tools
Outsourcing

3. Motivations
• Software is increasingly driving innovations
• Most startups are pure software plays
• Software complexity is becoming the limiting factor
• The “just do it in software! Its easy!” is no longer true
• Software releases is becoming the critical path in most technology projects
• Ripple effect of change in software is much harder to evaluate and test
• Building on-site technology competency is becoming really hard
• Most startups require expertise in multiple technology platforms

4. Requirements
• Requirements drive everything!
• Project management
• Testing
• Design
• Development
• Usability
• Outsourcing

5. Industry
Standards
Technology
Platform
Evaluations
Requirements Elicitation
UI
Prototyping
Usability
Analysis
Architecture Design
Unit
Testing
Code
Reviews
Surveys
Requirements Based
Verification Test Cases
Test
Management
Database
Automated Testing or
Manual Testing
Development
Integration and System Testing
Agile Development Process with Ripple Effects Analysis
Test
Framework

7. A
Example Requirements
• Battery Warning Screen
• The Main Window header shall contain the text
“Programmer Battery Low” [15-003]
Boot requested
29-A01
Programmer
Splash Screen
Time
Zone
Set?
No
21-A01
System Reset
Screen
Continue
Boot Up Set Time
Zone Screen
AA-A01
C-A01
Yes
• The Main Window shall contain the text “The Programmer
Save
has less than 5 minutes battery life remaining; would you like
to continue?”[15-004]
• The Separator Bar shall contain buttons with the test
“Continue” and “Cancel” [15-005]
• The button labeled “Continue” shall be the default action.
[15-006]
•
Programmer
Battery Life < 5
minutes?
Yes
21-A02
Battery
Warning
Screen
11-A02
20-A01
No
Start Menu
Continue
Cancel
16-A01
Suspend
Programmer

8. Verification
• Requirements based tests
• Verify that the specific requirement is met
under success and failure conditions
• Integration tests
• Unit test
• Intent is to verify the class implementation
prior to code check-in
• System tests
• Intent of the test is to verify how different
features work with each other
• Stress tests
• Intent of the test is to verify the behavior of
the system under worst case scenarios
• Intent of the test is to verify the system as an
entirety works within the intended
environment
• Peer review
• Effective way to verify the design and spread
the knowledge
TEST OFTEN ! Develop tests even before you develop code !

9. Requirements
Based Tests

10. Unit Test
Example

11. Metrics
• Test coverage
• Code coverage/branch
coverage
• Project management metrics
• Earned Value
• Rundown chart

12. Managing Change
• Rare to have a clean slate project
• More likely to come into a project with an existing asset base
• Ripple effects analysis
• Critical activity that is often overlooked
• A single new requirement or parameter change could have broad implications

13. Outline
•
•
•
•
Software development methodology
Agile Development Process
Development tools
Outsourcing

14. Industry
Standards
Technology
Platform
Evaluations
Requirements Elicitation
UI
Prototyping
Usability
Analysis
Architecture Design
Unit
Testing
Code
Reviews
Surveys
Requirements Based
Verification Test Cases
Test
Management
Database
Automated Testing or
Manual Testing
Development
Integration and System Testing
Agile Development Process with Ripple Effects Analysis
Test
Framework

15. Agile Development Process
Sprint
Planning
Meeting
Sprint
Review
Meeting

16. Sprint Planning
Meeting
Product Backlog
Team Capabilities
Sprint Planning
Sprint Goal
Business Conditions
Technology
Current Product
Meeting
Sprint Backlog

17. Daily Scrum
• Parameters
•
•
•
•
Daily
15-minutes
Stand-up
Not for problem solving
• Three questions:
1. What did you do yesterday
2. What will you do today?
3. What obstacles are in your way?
• Everyone is invited
• Help avoid other unnecessary
meetings
• Only team/scrum master can talk

18. Sprint Review Meeting
• Team presents what it accomplished during the sprint
• Typically takes the form of a demo of new features or underlying architecture
• Informal
• 2-hour prep time rule
• Participants
• Customers
• Management
• Product Owner
• Other engineers

19. Outline
•
•
•
•
Software development methodology
Agile development process
Development tools
Outsourcing

20. Development Tools
• Requirements and test cases
• Database solutions, e.g. DOORS
• Code change management
• Git, Github
• Static analysis and unit testing
• Code Analytics
• Lint
• JUnit
• Automated testing
• Robotium
• Monkey Runner

21. Outline
•
•
•
•
Software development methodology
Agile development process
Development tools
Outsourcing

22. Outsourcing Your Software Development
•
•
•
•
•
Increasingly viable and cost effective solution
Technology is complex and multi-faceted. Get the best to help you!
The degree of outsourcing depends on the value that the technology brings to your business
Many startups going to India, Poland, Philippines
However
• Clear requirements is critical!
• Need to understand the technology in-house
• Process and culture that enables outsourcing

23. Outsourcing
• Own the process and architecture
• Outsource the execution of the process (development/verification) on top
of the architecture
• Gather metrics continuously and get them to document all work
• Fixed price vs. Time/materials contract
• Prototype in-house to elicit requirements then outsource the implementation of the
requirements
• Detail the architecture and the process in the contract