Foreword

Summary

THIS book continues a new approach to understanding the key development issues that constantly distract important software projects from delivering effective software, because they aren't documented in most organizations. It has been known for many years that an effective software development lifecycle will deliver good software with fewer defects than the uncontrolled random iteration of code and requirement. The initial book defined the core development stages and lifecycle. The second volume provides the management, testing, and delivery phases of development.

The world of software and system development is changing. Tools and languages are starting to gain de facto standards that are allowing projects to develop the more complex systems being demanded by the business and end users. As more people join the software industry, experience is being stretched and it is becoming more difficult to find senior developers with more than three strong projects behind them. Communicating experience is becoming one of the most important success factors to most development teams. Quality systems are fine for defining the letter of the law and rules that must be obeyed to keep a project on track, but they often miss the guidance and explanation of why it is important to follow the steps outlined in their often hundreds of pages. These can make quality systems very unapproachable by the average developer.

Scott's book provides an intuitive and clearly written guide to the key issues, concepts, deliverables and processes needed to deliver a successful project.