Design – Build – Run: Applied Practices and Principles for Production-Ready Software Development

Chapter 4. The Ins and Outs of Construction

In the previous chapters, I've outlined a series of activities and actions that you should consider for each and every project you undertake. Although each project will be different, the underlying principles and foundations for production readiness remain the same. You've seen how these activities can improve the quality of the software that you develop, as well as improve the overall process of development and implementation. You've seen that all your applications, environments, processes, and tools need to be fit for purpose, and you've looked at the high-level software quality characteristics. The previous chapter touched on the high-level categories of inputs into the construction process. This chapter completes the high-level overview of the production-readiness landscape by taking a closer look at some of these inputs and discussing how to refine them to ensure you have the right level of detail for construction purposes. That's not to say that you'll get everything 100 percent right the first time, but you can at least give yourself the best shot at success. The more detail you have, the better your scope will be defined, the better your estimates will be, and the better your overall results will be. It is always going to be a balance between what you do up front and what you leave until later in the lifecycle.

This chapter is organized into the following sections:

• Thinking Out-of-the-Box — Regardless of whether you're developing ...