Dynamics of Software Development, Second Edition

The Stages of the Game

We can look at a software project as taking place in four major stages:

Opening Moves include creating a reasonable market strategy, a product design, and a development plan and undertaking the initial development activities. But the primary challenge in this stage—and what comes first in this book—is pulling together a functioning team amidst the typical chaos of a software development shop. The opening moves culminate in an event I call “Moving Day,” the date on which the project might be said to have commenced in earnest.

The Middle Game is the (seemingly vast) expanse of time usually bounded at the early end by the first slip in the schedule and at the other by the onset of “Ship Mode.” The middle game is roughly analogous ...