Rapid Development

Taming Wild Software Schedules

Steve McConnell

Publisher: Microsoft Press, 1996, 649 pages

ISBN: 1-55615-900-5

Keywords: Programming, Information Systems

Last modified: April 7, 2021, 6:13 p.m.

If your development schedule keeps getting away from you, here's how to get a firm grip on it.

Corporate and commercial software-development teams all want solutions for one important problem—how to get their high-pressure development schedules under control. In RAPID DEVELOPMENT, author Steve McConnell addresses that concern head-on with overall strategies, specific best practices, and valuable tips that help shrink and control development schedules and keep projects moving. As readers of McConnell's Code Complete would expect, the content is impressive indeed, bringing together the best research and large doses of hardwon experience. Inside you'll find:

    • A rapid-development strategy that can be applied to any project, and the best practices to make that strategy work
    • Candid discussions of great and not-so great rapid-development practices—estimation, prototyping, forced overtime, motivation, teamwork, rapid-development languages, risk management, and many other techniques
    • A list of classic mistakes to avoid for rapid-development projects, including creeping requirements, shortchanged quality, and silverbullet syndrome
    • Case studies that vividly illustrate what can go wrong, what can go right, and how to tell which direction your project is going

RAPID DEVELOPMENT is the real-world guide to more efficient software applications development. Get it—and get control of your development projects.

    • Part I: Efficient Development
      1. Welcome to Rapid Development
        • What is Rapid Development?
        • Attaining Rapid Development
      2. Rapid-Development Strategy
        • General Strategy for Rapid Development
        • Four Dimensions of Development Speed
        • General Kinds of Fast Development
        • Which Dimension Matters the Most?
        • An Alternative Rapid-Development Strategy
        • Further Reading
      3. Classic Mistakes
        • Case Study in Classic Mistakes
        • Effect of Mistakes on a Development Schedule
        • Classic Mistakes Enumerated
        • Escape from Gilligan's Island
        • Further Reading
      4. Software-Development Fundamentals
        • Management Fundamentals
        • Technical Fundamentals
        • Quality-Assurance Fundamentals
        • Following the Instructions
        • Further Reading
      5. Risk Management
        • Elements of Risk Management
        • Risk Identification
        • Risk Analysis
        • Risk Prioritization
        • Risk Control
        • Risk, High Risk, and Gambling
        • Further Reading
    • Part II: Rapid Development
      1. Core Issues in Rapid Development
        • Does One Size Fit All?
        • What Kind of Rapid Development Do You Need?
        • Odds of Completing on Time
        • Perception and Reality
        • Where the Time Goes
        • Development-Speed Tradeoffs
        • Typical Schedule-Improvement Pattern
        • Onward to Rapid Development
        • Further Reading
      2. Lifecycle Planning
        • Pure Waterfall
        • Code-and-Fix
        • Spiral
        • Modified Waterfalls
        • Evolutionary Prototyping
        • Staged Delivery
        • Design To Schedule
        • Evolutionary Delivery
        • Design to Tools
        • Commercial Off-the-Shelf Software
        • Choosing the Most Rapid Lifecycle For Your Project
        • Further Reading
      3. Estimation
        • The Software-Estimation Story
        • Estimation-Process Overview
        • Size Estimation
        • Effort Estimation
        • Schedule Estimation
        • Ballpark Schedule Estimates
        • Estimate Refinement
        • Further Reading
      4. 9 Scheduling
        • Overly Optimistic Scheduling
        • Beating Schedule Pressure
        • Further Reading
      5. Customer-Oriented Development
        • Customers' Importance to Rapid Development
        • Customer-Oriented Practices
        • Managing Customer Expectations
        • Further Reading
      6. Motivation
        • Typical Developer Motivations
        • Using the Top Five Motivation Factors
        • Using Other Motivation Factors
        • Morale Killers
        • Further Reading
      7. Teamwork
        • Software Uses of Teamwork
        • Teamwork's Importance to Rapid Development
        • Creating a High-Performance Team
        • Why Teams Fail
        • Long-Term Teambuilding
        • Summary of Teamwork Guidelines
        • Further Reading
      8. Team Structure
        • Team-Structure Considerations
        • Team Models
        • Managers and Technical Leads
        • Further Reading
      9. Feature-Set Control
        • Early Project: Feature-Set Reduction
        • Mid-Project: Feature-Creep Control
        • Late Project: Feature Cuts
        • Further Reading
      10. Productivity Tools
        • Role of Productivity Tools in Rapid Development
        • Productivity-Tool Strategy
        • Productivity-Tool Acquisition
        • Productivity-Tool Use
        • Silver-Bullet Syndrome
        • Further Reading
      11. Project Recovery
        • Case Studies in Project Recovery
        • General Recovery Options
        • Recovery Plan
        • Further Reading
    • Part III: Best Practices

        1. Change Board
        2. Daily Build and Smoke Test
        3. Designing for Change
        4. Evolutionary Delivery
        5. Evolutionary Prototyping
        6. Goal Setting
        7. Inspections
        8. Joint Application Design
        9. Lifecycle Model Selection
        10. Measurement
        11. Miniature Milestones
        12. Outsourcing
        13. Principled Negotiation
        14. Productivity Environments
        15. Rapid-Development Languages
        16. Requirements Scrubbing
        17. Reuse
        18. Signing Up
        19. Spiral Lifecycle Model
        20. Staged Delivery
        21. Theory-W Project Management
        22. Throwaway Prototyping
        23. Timebox Development
        24. Tools Group
        25. Top-10 Risks List
        26. User-Interface Prototyping
        27. Voluntary Overtime


    Reviews

    Rapid Development

    Reviewed by Roland Buresund

    Excellent ********** (10 out of 10)

    Last modified: Aug. 23, 2009, 11:31 a.m.

    Excellent book on software development and associated project methodologies. A personal favourite.

    Recommended reading for anyone in the IT industry.

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