Book 3 - Software Engineers on their way to Pluto (Snippets 1, 2)
For years ... or rather decades ... I have been interested in the space program and fascinated at how the space agency manages to communicate with Voyager-2 which is now "roughly" a mere 65AUs from Earth (that's 9,548,500,000km), how the space agency manages to patch the software on the Cassini probe which is even closer at 8.2AUs (i.e. 1,204,580,000km) and direct the probe through the rings of Saturn. It makes you wonder how the software industry back on Earth could be designing, developing and deploying solutions ... when we are typically a mere few meters of walking distance away from the solution.
This is where my collegue Geoff and I decided to embark on the exciting journey of book 3. We will start publishing snippets of the book, which is expected to go into final editing during December, to give you an idea of what we are trying to achieve and an insight into the exciting content.
Snippet # 1 from Defining the Context section: "What we can learn from the space agencies"
Although Pioneer is the furthest man-made object in space at a proud 91.865 Aus, Voyager 1 is the furthest operational man-made object in space at 81AUs … that’s 12,116.6 million kilometres from Earth … and is expected to continue transmission of data until 2020 … that’s 42 years of operational time. The average IT solution age is a mere 2 years, with continuous handholding.
The Huygens probe successfully landed on the Titan moon on Jan. 14, 2005, 7 years after launch, 4,500 million kilometres from Earth. The average IT solution is implemented on-site, with 75% of solutions failing or being de-scoped in terms of features or postponed before eventually seeing a “happy” business user.
The success stories of the space missions, the ability of the space probe engineers to design, develop and deploy solutions at vast distances, without the chance to stroll over to a computer and apply a quick patch, is in our eyes a fascinating achievement and one that the information technology software engineers should take note of, analyse and learn.
This book takes a critical look and investigates four solution teams and four vastly different approaches of solution life cycle that we have been exposed to during our 23 years in the information technology industry. To make it slightly more interesting we have transposed the four teams and their ways of operation to four teams of software engineers who are receiving the instruction to build and travel to Pluto and back, using their own space ship. We often make the statement that we do not believe that any software engineer would ever consider crossing a suspension bridge across a 500m gorge, built the way the industry builds the majority of information technology solutions.
There is no doubt that many projects are complex, based on unclear specifications, unknown and changing requirements, with perplexing human interactions and rapidly evolving and changing technology. However, it seems strange that the space agency is capable of achieving miracles, while the information technology industry normally ends each solution life cycle with bug storms, long hours, stressed team members and compromises on quality, release schedule and/or functionality to meet artificial milestones.
We believe that with effective management, clear specifications, open communication, usage of technology as a tool and not as a complexity challenge, keep-it-simple designs and continuous inspection, analysis and reporting, we can join the success stories of some of the previously mentioned space probes. We can avoid the high failure rate of information technology projects and we can finally deliver the return on investment that business deserves.
Read the remainder of this book like a story based on four enthusiastic solution teams, referred to as T1, T2, T3 and T4, and come to your own conclusion as to which approach you believe is the correct approach. Although we are intentionally not making any reference to life cycle tools or methodologies you should recognise some of the methodologies used by the teams and recognise tools and technologies. As mentioned previously each team has been transposed to this hypothetical space program from the information technology age during the past 23 years. Some teams may even recognise themselves and if that is the case, please realise that this book has been written to critically look at the way we work, not at the good, the bad and/or the evil of individual project teams. There are many, many more projects and environments, but due to commercial constraints, we had to pick four main candidates.
To the space agencies and true rocket scientists we extend an apology for probably breaking a gazillion space and technology rules to achieve the near impossible. We are merely trying to use a more spectacular analogy to highlight the challenges of the information technology projects of yesterday, today and probably tomorrow.
Let us return to the year 2004 and start at the beginning … enjoy the journey.
Snippet #2 from Mission Leadup section: "Moment of Truth"
Morpheus tapped on the open door of Thor, manager of Quality Assurance. He asked, "Got a moment?"
Thor was obviously deeply involved in something, but he looked up and saw the strain on his face said, "Of course. What's on your mind?"
Silently Morpheus went in and fell into the visitor's chair and his tension increased visibly. "I have a meeting of all the trainees chosen for the Pluto project. This is the decisive moment. After today there will be no turning back."
"Morpheus, my friend, this whole thing has been your dream. You sold it to our director's here at CC&E, they sold it to Space Agency, who then sold it to the President and the budget committees, and now you need to sell it once again. It may be a moment of truth, but it's more your moment of triumph."
"Yes, yes, but I need for these 'software engineers' to look at the reality from the outset. I will ask them to lay it all on the line. It's the old bacon and eggs thing; the pig is committed, but the chicken is just involved."
"And you want them to realise that they are the pigs?"
"Yes… No…"
"No not pigs. They are heroes. They had all he odds spelt out to them at their interviews, right?"
"Yes, but …"
"No buts. You get out there and sell your heart out. Of course, I know you want them to have a complete picture, you will give it to them and at the end of it, and they will all willingly give you their best, no matter the cost … or the risk. We are all counting on you."
Morpheus stood and Thor followed suit and moved out from behind his desk. He grabbed Morpheus's hand and they shook hands with an exchange of friendship and support greater than any words could have said.
... watch this space for more snippets.