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Case Study: The 7 Steps of Software Development – An un-"Real World" Case Study
» Chapter I: Introduction
» Chapter II: Cast of Characters
» Chapter III: Preliminary Investigation and Analysis
In this phase, Joe, as the project lead, should be refining the requirements and laying out the game plan for the development to come. What happens isn't quite that.
After the meeting with Mary, Joe has a lot of questions about her off-the-wall scribbling and the vague magazine article. He even questions the practicality of the project as he begins to analyze the information early the next week. He tries to bring this up with Brian but all he wants to know why the team, a hastily assembled group of new hires and contractors Joe didn't even interview, isn’t coding the project yet. He tells Joe that Mary told him she had given him complete requirements just before she left and that should be all he needs. Brian says, "The requirements are in the can, done, fin-eat-oo, don't worry about them."
Joe starts to protest but Brian blows off Joe’s complaints about the state of the requirements again and makes it clear once again that the project has top priority. He tells Joe, “Mary is an idea person, not a detail person like you. She’s going to be out of the office for the next 10 days so why don’t you show a little initiative and write up the detailed requirements ASAP yourself? She wouldn't know what you were talking about anyway. Take the bull by the horns and get it done! You’re a ‘can do’ kind of person, right? I only want ‘can do’ people on my team.”
Joe agrees that he is a ‘can do’ person and tells Brian that he'll get the requirements wrapped up and hold any questions until Mary returns. Brian says, “OK, great, just get the ball rolling.”
It doesn't look like Brian thinks much about having a lot of design work. He's interesting in lines of code. This heats up even more in Chapter V: Design
» Chapter V: Design
» Chapter VI: Coding
» Chapter VII: Testing
» Chapter VII: Deployment
» Chapter IX: Maintenance
» Chapter X: Aftermath and Comments
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