Real-World Maintainable Software

Preface

Being the relatively young profession that it is, software development is still trying to figure out the best way to deliver. One of the most promising ideas of recent years comes from the software craftsmanship movement, which recommends small teams with attention to detail, risk aversion, and an appetite for continuous improvement. In teams like this, it is easy to be kept up-to-date with almost every aspect of the project, which means hidden traps and mistakes rarely go unnoticed for long. These teams consistently produce high-quality software that is easy to maintain.

Unfortunately, for better or worse, some organizations still need to manage large projects over long periods of time. In such environments, the principles of craftsmanship still apply, though one cannot hope to be kept up-to-date on every single aspect of the daily life of the project. Knowledge silos will appear, communication channels will decrease, and as a result it will be nearly impossible to assess whether staff are following a good set of best practices.

Many organizations have tried to fix this, especially from the point of view of project management. This is how, first, complex project management processes with certifications like PRINCE2 and, later, lighter processes with certifications like SCM came to be born. And, although both types of approaches achieved some level of success, they were both missing the technical side of things.

This is what initially motivated the Software Improvement ...