5 Tips that contribute to effective Software Development

5 Tips that contribute to effective Software Development

Many organizations have switched over the past years with varying success to forms of "agile" software development. Taking stock, you see that a lot of organizations are struggling to become more effective and effective. And admittedly, this is also incredibly difficult. In some cases, "Corporate Agility" is no more than the new hype, without being given any practical help. In this document, you will find five tips that contribute to more effective software development.

1. Set up portfolio and product management

Certainly, when Scrum is introduced, there may still be a lot of emphasis on ad hoc delivery of functionality. They work neatly in sprints and there is a backlog, but there is no vision for the longer term and there is no coherent roadmap. I see many organizations that are extremely concerned about short-term goals while they have lost sight of the long-term direction they are heading in. It is simply easier to monitor that an individual project runs within time and budget than to ensure that we contribute effectively to the long-term strategy of the organization.

2. Focus on effectiveness and not on efficiency

To make successful software it is much more important to clearly determine what you are not doing, then to monitor whether what you are doing within time and budget (which I do not mean that the latter does not value). I can still remember a small organization that wanted to add extra functionality to their web application: "Yes ... something like twitter, with messages and responses and such." For the sake of convenience, it was ignored that twitter has hundreds of developers and this organization has five. Everything that you build must also be maintained and the art of successful software is to work with as little automation as possible to maximize the effect.

3. Focus on maximizing value and not minimizing costs

Of course, you cannot spend more money than you receive (only national governments get away with that). There is nothing wrong with healthy cost reduction, only when the focus on reducing costs also causes revenue to fall, you end up in a vicious circle. It is much more important to discover which issues are responsible for revenue growth. Then choose KPIs that show what teams deliver.

4. Make sure you know "why" you are doing something

Ask yourself the "why" question in everything. This is not just a "trick" that sellers use to sell something, it is an essential part of a successful organization. Every employee is confronted daily with the choices that he has to make in his work. When he knows why he is doing something, he can also take responsibility and take initiative.

5. Ensure a closed feedback cycle

Under the motto "measuring is knowing" it is very important to know what your customers think of your application. Although customer input is not the only thing that counts, and not necessarily the heaviest, I see that many organizations have not organized customer contact at all.