October 23, 2008
Closing the GapThe Voice of Millar's Clients
The real-life clients Millar sees have three things in common:
"This is all very real -- but virtually everyone I work with is keeping the details of their own process improvement very low profile," said Millar. "They see their innovations as a competitive advantage -- slightly ahead of the curve -- and they don't want to share outside their home base."
While preparing for this article Millar asked many of his clients to openly discuss details about their process improvement, and the only ones prepared to do so insisted their companies go unnamed. "Until these new approaches become ubiquitous, many current adopters are treating the details as 'trade secrets,' " he said.
First Client
Profile: What Gartner would call a "small and midsize enterprises (SME's)." A competitive company whose primary business is developing innovative and practical software products used primarily in the education sector: universities, colleges and public-school districts. Their solutions are very much shaped by customer needs, and they have emerged as a leader in web-based solutions tailor-made for education professionals.
Process improvement within the company is led largely by the Director of Software Quality Assurance who oversees a shop with 32 IT staff . He commented on how some of the newer tools have reshaped their development process in the past couple of years:
We are cutting back on the "scope creep" that comes from misunderstandings by using a combination of Microsoft's Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) and SPARX Systems' Enterprise Architect and integrating them through Microsoft's Team Foundation Server. In a VSTS/.NET environment this combination closes the gap between the business analysts on one hand and software engineers and QA testers on the other. We recently did a pilot project, and the clarity provided by the very first UML modeling project, produced with the new process and the new tools, repaid the entire cost of retooling.
Second Client
A very large national U.S. retail company that just celebrated its 20th anniversary, and is "very excited about the future." The retail operation includes outlets across the country from coast to coast. Their business strategy includes continually introducing improvements and innovations to make shopping easier and more convenient for the customer, while continually searching the globe for merchandise that gives customers "exactly what they're looking for." The retail industry has very small margins and improving software agility and services is viewed as a company-confidential competitive advantage.
The Chief Software Architect was prepared to talk for this article on condition that his organization went unnamed. As with the first example (above), his development team is using SPARX Systems' Enterprise Architect.
I've been able to impose a new level of discipline on the development process -- we've eliminated the 'weak link' by creating a common language (UML) between the business people coming in with requirements and the architects who are designing the new systems. The newer software-development tools are a breath of fresh air when I compare them to their predecessors -- that performed like a herd of elephants.
No Longer "Pioneering"
Millar said he personally no longer feels like a "in the wilderness" when he works with clients who are part of this change -- because he sees so much of it now in his professional travels
"As recently as five years ago the people bringing me in to an organization were the early adopters and ahead of their colleagues in the industry," he said. "I would facilitate workshops with a group of keeners, and it would take a day or two before the others in the team got excited at all the new and emerging possibilities."
"Today it's different," said Millar. "Now when I go in and work with a client -- typically everyone in the room is already enthusiastic about trying out new tools and learning how to improve the processes of evolving and delivering software."
When Millar talks about a "quiet, major transformation" in process improvement, standards and tools, he really sees a fundamental change in the way software development teams work together. He sees software development professionals embracing change as never before, and happily leaving behind dysfunctional software development practices.
"The light at the end of the tunnel is getting clearer."
Resources
Scott Ambler
David Anderson blog
Ivar Jacobson
Ramsay Millar
Microsoft Solutions Framework
Microsoft Foundation and Visual Studio Team System
SPARX Systems
International Institute of Business Analysts (IIBA)
OMG (Object Management Group)
Useful Books
Agile Modeling
Requirements in Context
Previous Page |
1 Introduction
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2 First Trend: Closing the Gap
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3 Second Trend: Increased Growth and Sophistication of the UML Notation
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4 Third Trend: Teamwork and Collaboration
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5 The Voice of Millar's Clients
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