a concise theory of software development in pictures

© Alistair Cockburn 2016

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A Concise Theory of Software Development in Pictures Alistair Cockburn March, 2016 http://alistair.cockburn.us


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To an interpreter unforgiving of error

People ...

every decision has economic consequences Making decisions

and resources are limited.

… they don’t understand which keeps changing … they don’t understand which keeps changing … they don’t understand which keeps changing … they don’t understand which keeps changing

Deciding


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Infinite Organization Survival Career Management

Competitive Cooperative

Open-ended Jazz music

Finite goal-directed

King-of-the-hill wrestling

Poker

Tennis

Chess

Rock-Climbing Theater

Journalism Exploration Software

Development

Business

Product Line Management

IT Systems


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frequency & richness of communication

trust


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distance

frequ

ency

of c

omm

unic

atio

n


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Richness of communication channel

Com

mun

icat

ion

Effe

ctiv

enes

s

2 people on phone

2 people on chat

2 people at whiteboard

Paper (No Question-Answer)

Videotape


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distance

cost

to d

evel

op s

oftw

are


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Cultural power index (nation or organization)

Ease

of c

omm

unic

atin

g ba

d or

unc

omfo

rtab

le n

ews


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Organizational tolerance for ambiguity / uncertainty / flux / concurrency

Productivity

The organizational tolerance determines the set of techniques you can use

The situation may require techniques beyond the organizational tolerance (techniques

using ambiguity uncertainty flux concurrency)


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C6 C20 C40 C100

D6 D20 D40 D100

E6 E20 E40 E100

L6 L20 L40 L100

Project Classification Scale:

Number of people coordinated 1 - 6 - 20 - 40 - 100

Comfort

Essential moneys

Life

Discretionary moneys

Criticality

X

X X

X X


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Plan-driven!sweet spot

Time and Effort Invested in Plans

Dam

age

from

!ov

er/u

nder

plan

ning

Agile!sweet spot

Boehm, B.


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Number of people

Communications Load Effectiveness

per person


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Problem Size

Light methodology

Medium methodology

Heavy methodology # people

needed to

succeed with

project


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Tolerance for ambiguity / uncertainty

Prod

uctiv

ity

(usi

ng fl

ux &

unc

erta

inty

)

modern projects

simpler projects

Project requires at least this much productivity to succeed


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time

Testers 100 lines of code show up for testing

# of design decisions

Decisions being validated / broken

time

Testers 1,000 lines of code show up for testing How long this line of code /

screen / use case / decision sits in the testing queue

How long this line of code / screen / use case / decision sits in the testing queue

Decisions arriving

Example: Arrival at test


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Project 1: Simplify life for the DB designer, make programmers do extra

Project 2: Simplify life for the programmers / tester, make Business Managers do extra

Database designer

Programmer

Programmer

Programmer

Programmer

Programmer

Req’ts

Req’ts

User

Tester

Programmer

Programmer

Programmer

Programmer

Bus. Mgr.

Bus. Mgr. User

User

User

User

Bus. Mgr.


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Delivers nearly no knowledge (or risk reduction)

time

Knowledge comes at the final “moment of truth”

cost

Growth of knowledge with big-bang integration / deployment


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Value

Knowledge / risk reduction

time

Tail

risk value tail Item1 .. … ... item 2 . … .. item 3 .. … . item 4 .. .. . :


25 Kano’s Theory of Attractive Quality and Packaging

attributes and they change over time. This perspectiveon quality does not contain any general quality dimen-sions; instead, product attributes are classified into fivecategories according to the theory of attractive quality.

THE THEORY OF ATTRACTIVEQUALITYInspired by Herzberg’s M-H theory in behavioral science,Kano and his coworkers developed the theory of attractivequality. A distinction between satisfaction and dissatisfac-tion was first introduced in the two-factor theory of jobsatisfaction by Herzberg, Bernard, and Snyderman(1959). In essence, the theory posits that the factors thatcause job dissatisfaction are different from the factorsthat cause job satisfaction. The theory of attractive qualityis useful to better understand different aspects of how cus-tomers evaluate a product or offering (Gustafsson 1998).Over the past two decades this theory has gained exposureand acceptance through articles in various marketing,quality, and operations management journals. The

theory of attractive quality has been applied in strategicthinking, business planning, and product development todemonstrate lessons learned in innovation, competitive-ness, and product compliance (Watson 2003).

According to Kano (2001), the theory of attractivequality originated because of the lack of explanatorypower of a one-dimensional recognition of quality. Forinstance, people are satisfied if the packaging of milkextends the expiration date and dissatisfied if the packag-ing shortens the expiration date. For a quality attributesuch as leakage, people are not satisfied if the packagedoes not leak, but they are very dissatisfied if it does.The one-dimensional view of quality can explain therole of expiration but not leakage. To understand therole of quality attributes, Kano et al. (1984) present amodel that evaluates patterns of quality, based on cus-tomers’ satisfaction with specific quality attributes andtheir degree of sufficiency. On the horizontal axis in theKano diagram (see Figure 1) the physical sufficiency ofa certain quality attribute is displayed. The vertical axisshows satisfaction with a certain quality attribute

www.asq.org 9

Customer Satisfaction

Degree of Achievement

Very Satisfied

Very Dissatisfied

Attractive

One-Dimensional

Indifferent

Reverse

Must-Be

Not at All Fully

Figure 1 An overview of the theory of attractive quality.

©20

05, A

SQ

Lofgren 6/22/05 10:41 AM Page 9

Kano


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mastery

Complicatedness

Shu

Ha

Ri

Kokoro

code-and-deliver

Scrum XP DSDM Lean Kanban

I can’t even tell you

focus on the basics


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a concise theory of software development in pictures

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