15 June 2010 by Stuart Cam
Death March - Edward Yourdon
- Customer's requirements are captured in written form
- Requirements are transformed into further written documentation
- Timescales are predicted using guesswork and multiplication
- Invariably this process always results in a bid for work
- Cost is calcuated as a function of timescales and resources
- The statement of work is drawn up to include as many get-out-of-jail-free loopholes as possible
- The schedule is unveiled, all hail the schedule
- Developer units are hired to work to the schedule
- Requirements and specifications are buried in word documents and spreadsheets
- Key knowledge held by people who are disconnected from development
- Distributed teams make communication difficult
- Development derives additional requirements during the solution process
- Customer changes requirements
- Cycles of rework begin
- Plan starts to slip
- Management become unhappy
- Pressure begins to mount and quality begins to suffer
- Developers suggest solutions, but these are stifled or trivialised
- Retrospectives are conducted behind closed doors
- A new schedule is drawn up, goto 7.
- Morale plummets
- Self-preservation begins to take over
- The development team starts to dissolve
I wonder what the outcome will be?
