acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

Practice

Lean Software Development: Building and Shipping Two Versions


Lean Software Development, illustration

Credit: 3D-Sparrow

back to top 

Once upon a time (and isn't that how all good stories start?) I was managing a software team and we were working on several initiatives. Projects were assigned based on who was available, their skillsets, and their development goals. This resulted in two developers, let's call them Mary and Melissa, being assigned to the same project.

Mary and Melissa had been working together for a few weeks when I started hearing complaints in my one-on-ones with each of them about the other. Mary was complaining that Melissa was taking too long to do her part, and spending time on unit tests that did not make sense because things were in flux with the project. Meanwhile, Melissa was complaining that Mary wrote sloppy code and did not write enough tests (she even showed me comments in the code like "hack:...." and "to do: someone should add more error handling here"). Each of them had valid points and feedback for the other.


 

No entries found

Log in to Read the Full Article

Sign In

Sign in using your ACM Web Account username and password to access premium content if you are an ACM member, Communications subscriber or Digital Library subscriber.

Need Access?

Please select one of the options below for access to premium content and features.

Create a Web Account

If you are already an ACM member, Communications subscriber, or Digital Library subscriber, please set up a web account to access premium content on this site.

Join the ACM

Become a member to take full advantage of ACM's outstanding computing information resources, networking opportunities, and other benefits.
  

Subscribe to Communications of the ACM Magazine

Get full access to 50+ years of CACM content and receive the print version of the magazine monthly.

Purchase the Article

Non-members can purchase this article or a copy of the magazine in which it appears.