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The Future of Software Development - ReadWriteWeb

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Saved by 31 people (-11 private), first by anonymouse user on 2007-10-17


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The Future of Software Development

Highlighted by apkarthick

that adding more people to a development project will hinder rather than help to get things done faster. The reason is that having more people working on the project introduces a non-linear overhead in communication.

Highlighted by bubba9er

The Waterfall Model is now considered a flawed method because it is so rigid and unrealistic. In the real world, software projects have ill-defined and constantly evolving requirements, making it impossible to think everything through at once. Instead, the best software today is created and evolved using agile methods

Highlighted by bubba9er

Digg, del.icio.us, YouTube and other poster children of the new web era were developed by just a handful of programmers. To build software today all you need is a few good men (or women!)

Highlighted by mck134

Yet the accelerating pace of business requires constant changes to software. Older development methods completely fail to address business needs. Using the Waterfall Model, these changes were impossible, the development cycle was too long, systems were over engineered and ended up costing a fortune, and often did not work right.

Highlighted by mck134

The problem was that the Waterfall Model was arrogant. The arrogance came from the fact that we believed that we could always engineer the perfect system on the first try. The second problem with it was that in nature, dynamic systems are not engineered, they evolve.

Highlighted by mck134

the Waterfall Model was arrogant. The arrogance came from the fact that we believed that we could always engineer the perfect system on the first try. The second problem with it was that in nature, dynamic systems are not engineered, they evolve

Highlighted by bubba9er

In the early nineties a number of agile software development methods emerged. While they differed in details, they agreed at large that software development needed a major rethinking. First, software has to embrace change. Today's assumptions and requirements may change tomorrow, and software needs to respond to changes quickly. To meet the challenge, agile approaches advocate focusing on simplicity. Make the simplest possible system that satisfies today's requirements and when tomorrow comes, be ready to adapt.

Highlighted by mck134

agile approaches advocate focusing on simplicity. Make the simplest possible system that satisfies today's requirements and when tomorrow comes, be ready to adapt.

Highlighted by bubba9er

We have now arrived at an age where we have a strong foundation for building complex software systems

Highlighted by bubba9er

with the recent explosion of social web we've witnessed a new and interesting phenomenon: a handful of developers are now able to build systems that are used by millions of people. How can this be?

The secret is that as with any good endeavor it only takes a few good men (and/or women!). With a bit of discipline and a ton of passion, high quality engineers are able to put together systems of great complexity on their own.

Equipped with a modern programming language, great libraries, and agile methods, a couple of smart guys in the garage can get things done much better and faster than an army of mediocre developers.

Highlighted by mck134

We are likely to see a few changes over the coming years:

  • High-quality, passionate software engineers will be in very high demand and will make substantially more money.
  • The developers who do not have great programming skills are going to have to look for jobs elsewhere.
  • The changes that we are witnessing today in the social software market are going to reach the enterprise level.
  • Software off shoring will make less and less economical sense.
  • Computer science is going to remain a highly competitive and prestigious field.

Highlighted by mck134