The Business Manager's Guide to Software Projects

Every day, successful software projects scale and sustain businesses of all sizes and across all industries. Unfortunately, the reality is that many software projects still fail. The reasons behind these failures are seldom due to the underlying technology. Misunderstandings and communication barriers lead to wrong decisions, missed opportunities, communication breakdowns, or worse—huge economic loss. In this digitally connected world, business professionals can’t afford to be hands-off on technical projects, but they also can’t be expected to have technical certifications. They have first-hand knowledge of the business processes, are subject matter experts in software requirements, and they finance the projects. Even C-level management or board members need to rapidly gain just enough understanding of technology to make mission-critical decisions for businesses to survive and flourish. In most software projects the number of non-technical stakeholders far exceeds the numberof techies. This book distills the world of software projects into simple terms and relatable metaphors for even the most technically adverse reader. Real-life examples, entertaining analogies, and hand-drawn illustrations will stick with readers throughout their own software projects, bolstering their success. Business requirements, use cases, process flows—the list goes on. It’s all broken down in this game-changing book aimed at delivering for business and tech teams what DevOps has done for developers and operations. What You Will Learn * Know the importance of good business requirements and how to write them * Identify the most important business roles, key decisions, and critical activities involved in software projects * Strengthen collaboration between non-technical and technical teams * Grasp common software project terminology, required for non-techies * Understand the software development life cycle * Gain insight on the common software project methodologies and how they differ * Understand what software developers do at a high level Who This Book Is For Non-technical business professionals (such as small business owners, startup founders, or employees of a business of any size or industry) who need to secure and implement a software solution. The reader may supervise or collaborate with technical teams, and may be a (beginning) software developer looking for practical insights and better ways to communicate with business colleagues. Part I: Conceptual Guide.- Chapter 1: Architecture and Construction.- Chapter 2: Planning and Scope.- Chapter 3: Teething Troubles.- Chapter 4: Greenfield Construction.- Chapter 5: Laying the Right Foundation.- Chapter 6: Renovating and Extending.- Chapter 7: Technical Debt.- Chapter 8: Maintenance.- Chapter 9: Differences Between Physical Construction and Software Development.- Chapter 10: More Metaphors.- Part II: Practical Guide.- Chapter 11: The Practical Side.- Chapter 12: Plan and Prepare.- Chapter 13: Define.- Chapter 14: Develop.- Chapter 15: Test.- Chapter 16: Training, Going Live, and Maintenance.- Part III: Technical Guide.- Chapter 17: The Technical Side.- Chapter 18: Coding and Design.- Chapter 19: Metaphors for Technical Terms.- Chapter 20: Tricky Areas in Technical Development.- Chapter 21: To Sum Up.- Appendix A: Collaboration.- Appendix B: Glossary.-  Appendix C: References and Further Reading.