The Art of Project Management

2.2. Silver bullets and methodologies

There are many different systems for how to plan and manage the development of software. These systems are often called methodologies, which means a body of practices aimed at achieving a certain kind of result. Common software methods include the waterfall model, spiral model, Rapid Applications development, Extreme Programming, and Feature-driven development. All of these methods attempt to solve similar organization and project management problems. They each have strengths and weaknesses, and it takes knowledge and experience to decide which one is right for what kind of project.

But my goal in this chapter, and in this book, isn't to debate and compare different methodologies or systems for doing things. Instead, I believe there are concepts and tactics that underlie them all and which need to be mastered in order to succeed with any methodology. In all cases, methodologies need to be adjusted and adapted to fit the specifics of a team and a project, and that's possible only if you have a foundation of knowledge that's deeper than the methodologies themselves. So, if you can understand and practice the underlying ideas described in this chapter and in the rest of the book, your odds of being effective will increase, independent of which methodology you're using. I'll explain aspects of certain methods as needed to clarify points, but you'll have to look elsewhere if you're methodology shopping.(2)

Although methods and processes for software ...