Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Process and People

Once again I have been re reading around Feature Driven Development (FDD). It is an agile software development methodology and one that I like a lot in the world of process.

However I was reminded when I reopened the book “JAVA Modeling Color with UML” by Peter Coad, Eric Lefebvre and Jeff De Luca that process methodology is there to assist in the execution and production of results, not there for the sake of the process itself. After all we are all paid to produce results,  a working product fit for purpose.

Process execution just for the sake of it can soon lead to process pride. Having hundred of steps to execute in any process will soon kill productivity in any project and people will become slaves to the process rather than the process supporting the people to execute and deliver the results we need.

There is a real balance in the “enough process” that requires strong leadership and mentoring by technical and non technical management. It all comes back tot he people in the end.

Quality people can rise above bad or no process and make a difference. As I often say “Monkeys into the process still equals monkeys coming out of the process”. Focus on the people give them enough process and watch the results.

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