Software engineering and the production function
August 17th, 2007 by sjbA software product, like any other, might be though of as having a production function, though perhaps in software, the function determines quality not quantity.
That is, the quality of a software product is determined by the quality of the inputs and the development process. The inputs to the function might be:
- Functional requirements
- Non-functional requirements
- Architecture
- Skills held by the analysts, architects, developers, testers and managers
- The implementation platform, be it a programming language or a software product
- Organisational factors
- Sociological factors
The development process must be agile and people seem to be converging somewhere between early XP and RUP.
Now, how often do software projects get these inputs right?