Chapter 4. Dealing with Uncertainty
The Five Constraints of Software Development
There are five main constraints in software development management: people, time, functionality, budget, and resources (excluding people). Agile methods recognize these constraints and seek to protect and exploit them [Beck 2000, p. 15].
Resources must be protected from uncertainty. Uncertainty manifests itself when the unplanned happens. A system can absorb uncertainty with the provision of buffers. Tom DeMarco wrote an entire book Slack, about buffering resources in software [2001]!
In every case, a constraint can be protected by a buffer. A buffer would normally be allocated in the same unit of measure as the constraint is measured. Hence, people should be ...
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