The SDLC evolution
I would have drawn comic strips if I had the time… but this will do for now.. and yes., I know I am overly generalizing… but still…:
- Software engineering is an art, there is no science
- we put what we are supposed to do on stickies, and the developers know how to work them
- why are they stuck to your monitor?
- so i know what requirements people tell me I need to create and complete
- I can never figure out you are working on, or does all this work keep coming from
- the cleaning crew lost my stickies
- we keep running late on our promised delivery
- we need project managers to manage your queue so we know what you developers are doing
- Looks like we need process and stages, so we know what the real requirements are, and have an official sign off
- Yea, no one should ever code unless we know what we want to build and how its going to get broken up
- Okay, it took 9 months to document everything we want, lets code
- ….another 9 months… code complete!
- hmmm, looks like we built something that would have been useful 15 months ago
- …and looks like no one really wants to use it the way we build it
- okay, so lets define a bit, code a bit, and deliver a bit
- great, that way we can deliver sooner and see if its useful
- hey, this is great, but can we do it faster and better? can we get rid of more processes?
- monthly products and feature sets released…
- ..wow, this is great, were pushing out really useful features based on customer needs
- yea, but all these sprints, and the time boxing, there’s too much structure
- there’s gotta be a way to be even faster, leaner
- yea, is there a way to make these sprints visual? and the work to be done visual?
- yea I’m very visual, i could just look at a board and understand what i need to work on next
- how about a big board with stickies?
- that would be great, we can have a to-do section with all the stickies that need to be done. and then move…
- ..yes, yes! and we can move them from one area to another., and we can write our name on the sticky
- and we can really focus on the stuff that we are working on… and…. and… and…
- …this will work,
- ……if we all understand and know how to work these stickies
- …wonder why no one thought of this sooner
Zeeshan Sheikh 
One comment