Having a clear development process

Posted by mkhairul - September 23, 2009 at 09:09:27 am - No Comments

 Categories: blog



Not many company have this (at least not the one that I worked for). Usually the process is just hearsay that most of the time changed into something else everytime its passed around and its not the same thing coming from everyone.

There was one time, where theres an ISO document for the development process, after it has been reviewed by the ISO department it was kept and never to be seen again (that’s what usually happens when its too formal and nobody wants anything to do with it, oh yeah, and no enforcement).

I agree that, having a clear development process is on of the aspects to deliver great software (short-term and long-term), but how?

It shouldn’t be long, one or two page of text explaining with simple yet casual language. It all depends on the environment that you’re on and incrementally improve on it.

An example from my observation,
- make changes based on the current task and project (duh)
- compare the changes that I made with the one on the server
- merge it
- overwrite it
- inform everyone involved in the project of the changes made using the developer mailing list
- at the end of the week, present what I have done to the management (heh)

If you noticed, the process is full of pitfalls. To understand why it is the way it is, you’d have to understand its context (which I wouldn’t explain it here). Even though the process is flawed, it is still good to have it clearly for everyone to see instead of passing it through word of mouth.

So, if you or anyone else go to a company and the process is still passed with word of mouth, write it down and see if it makes sense (or just pry it out of your colleague’s/boss brain, ref cartoon).

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