Wasserman Keynote at ICSSP 2013

Low Ceremony Processes for Short Lifecycle Projects

Tony Wasserman Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley

Int’l Conf. on So9ware and System Process

19 May 2013

Bay to Breakers: a Complex System

Bay to Breakers Processes 50000 people traveling 12K over 4 hours

•  Security •  Traffic control •  RegistraEon •  Finances •  Publicity •  Awards •  CollecEbles •  Refreshments

•  Sponsor management •  RecruiEng •  Exhibitor management •  Entertainment •  Medical •  Warmup and start •  Individual Eming

Individual Runner

Individual runner processes 1 person running 12K in 1+ hour

•  Travel •  Refreshments

•  Individual Eming

Facebook’s early days Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard in 2004

How much process did he use? Where’s the spec?

“Process Ceremony”

•  The extent to which a well-‐defined and carefully followed process is needed

•  More process steps needed for –  Life-‐criEcal and business-‐criEcal systems

–  Hard-‐to-‐modify systems

–  Systems with high financial risk

–  Systems with high public visibility

Different types of systems need different types of processes

High ceremony processes may follow a defined, or even an op7mized, process, as put forth by the SEI.

CMMI 1.2 Key Practices

•  ConfiguraEon Mgmt. •  Measurement and Analysis •  Project Monitoring and

Control •  Project Planning •  Product and Process QA •  Requirements Mgmt. •  Supplier Agreement Mgmt. •  Decision Analysis and

ResoluEon •  Integrated Project Mgmt. •  OrganizaEonal Process Def. •  OrganizaEonal Process Focus

•  OrganizaEonal Training •  Product IntegraEon •  Requirements Development •  Risk Management •  Technical SoluEon •  ValidaEon •  VerificaEon •  OrganizaEonal Process

Performance •  QuanEtaEve Project Mgmt. •  Causal Analysis and

ResoluEon •  OrganizaEonal InnovaEon

Too much process?

How many organizaEons truly address all of these areas, even when building

complex systems?

Modern Startups

•  Mobile apps

•  Consumer-‐oriented web and cloud apps

•  Add-‐ons to exisEng applicaEons •  Development and deployment tools and pla[orms

•  ApplicaEon monitoring

•  Web analyEcs

•  AcEvity trackers •  “Smart” sensor-‐based devices

Startups ini7ally have few, if any processes. Some individual developers have good habits; some hack.

What are the most important activities for a tiny startup? •  Requirements: addressing customer pain points •  Delivering funcEoning code: minimizing Eme to market •  Product architecture; building on proven components •  Product usability •  Product performance, robustness, scalability •  Development and deployment environments •  Building a team •  Business development with partners •  GeneraEng favorable market awareness •  Funding, burn rate and revenue sources

How many of these activities address the key needs of the tiny startup?

•  ConfiguraEon Mgmt. •  Measurement and Analysis •  Project Monitoring and

Control •  Project Planning •  Product and Process QA •  Requirements Mgmt. •  Supplier Agreement Mgmt. •  Decision Analysis and

ResoluEon •  Integrated Project Mgmt. •  OrganizaEonal Process Def. •  OrganizaEonal Process Focus

•  OrganizaEonal Training •  Product IntegraEon •  Requirements Devel. •  Risk Management •  Technical SoluEon •  ValidaEon •  VerificaEon •  OrganizaEonal Process

Performance •  QuanEtaEve Project Mgmt. •  Causal Analysis and

ResoluEon •  OrganizaEonal InnovaEon

Process Mismatch

Needed: process to fit

Enter agile processes and lean soFware development

Main Principles of Agile Software Development

•  Capture and define requirements at a high level •  User involvement is essenEal •  The team must be allowed to make decisions •  Develop small incremental releases, and iterate •  Focus on frequent delivery of products •  Requirements evolve but the Emescale is fixed •  Complete each feature before moving on to the next •  TesEng is integrated throughout the product lifecycle •  A collaboraEve and cooperaEve approach between all

stakeholders is essenEal From managedmayhem.com/2009/05/06

Lean Software Development

•  Pursues perfecEon through the systemaEc idenEficaEon and eliminaEon of wasteful acEviEes –  ReducEon of non-‐value-‐added acEvity –  Smoothing of flow

–  EliminaEon of overburdening

•  “Agile methods” contained less “waste” and thus produced a beger outcome

Software Engineering Evolves

•  New processes •  New tools and technologies •  Extensive use of FOSS •  Dependence on third-‐party services •  Extremely rapid changes

•  Difficulty of replicaEng problems

Common Thread: Interactive access to the Internet

Modern software engineering is different

•  SimilariEes –  Quality/reliability issues –  Performance (download Emes, database access) –  ConfiguraEon management –  Architecture issues –  Version management

•  Key Differences –  User interface –  Release frequency – MulEple programming notaEons (HTML, Perl, Java, JavaScript, etc.) –  Reliance on APIs and reuse –  Diversity of development teams –  Development methodology

Where are the process changes?

•  Frequent feature-‐driven releases (need for DevOps) •  Short, agile development cycle

•  Frequent builds •  Daily standup meeEngs

•  Strong UX end user focus •  Extensive use of exisEng infrastructure, frameworks,

components, i.e., write less code

•  Heavy tool emphasis

•  Expanded tesEng and QA

Stringent customer expectations

•  ApplicaEon always up –  How do you upgrade hardware and so9ware? –  How do you maintain control over third parEes?

•  Easy to use and navigate •  Secure and reliable end-‐to-‐end transacEons •  Acceptable performance at normal connecEon speeds

•  Suitable privacy policy

Application must be fault-tolerant, reliable, scalable, usable

Quality Assurance Is Critical

•  Impact of consumer reviews, especially in app stores

•  Front-‐end and usability tesEng –  FuncEonal tesEng for common tasks

–  Link tesEng (can be largely automated)

–  A/B tesEng •  Back-‐end tesEng

–  White-‐box tesEng

–  FuncEonal tesEng •  Load tesEng

–  Match site infrastructure to esEmated load

Mobile and Web Applications •  Involve mulEple design dimensions

–  Front end •  InteracEon design, e.g., navigaEon •  Image and Graphics •  ScripEng (JavaScript)

–  Back end •  Architecture and component integraEon •  Performance (response Eme) •  Database design •  Scalability (number of users) •  Fault tolerance and reliability •  Logical structure of code (programming and/or scripEng language)

–  IntegraEon architectures and frameworks

Modern applications depend on third-party services

•  Content caching •  Credit-‐card processing •  Order fulfillment

•  Visitor tracking •  Email processing

•  Ad servers •  Discussion and chat forums

Many “web site” functions are outsourced – a site is not a single entity

Needed team skills for successful development and deployment

•  Planning of feature-‐based releases •  System architecture (hardware and so9ware)

•  Security •  Deployment environments (devops)

•  Programming in various languages

•  UX and UI •  FuncEonal and stress tesEng; mulEple client tesEng

•  Scalability •  Web infrastructure (firewalls, proxy servers, load balancers)

Processes driven by tools

•  Programming environments

•  CollaboraEon tools •  Mockups and prototyping

•  Device emulators

GitHub project forge

CollabNet TeamForge

Appcelerator’s Titanium Studio

Xcode for iOS App

Eclipse for Android development

Telerik Load Testing

Startups grow up The Week, January 15, 2013

When Startups Grow Up – Process Accumulates

•  More people, more process

•  More customers dependent on the system

•  Products evolve more slowly

•  Developers spend less Eme developing

•  Key founders depart to create another startup (or to become angel investors and advisors)

Increased business and technical risks drive process change

Contact information

Anthony I. (Tony) Wasserman post: Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley

MoffeO Field, CA 94035 USA email: [email protected] Skype, G+: tony.wasserman TwiOer: twasserman

Wasserman Keynote at ICSSP 2013

Technology

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