Tag: Project Management

A recurring issue for IT and business management is whether it’s best to build an in-house team or outsource the development of software applications. Some of the biggest factors when contemplating application outsourcing are cost, security and loss of control.

Business agility remains a top priority, but this puts added pressure on teams to move fast, and can sometimes lead to rushed projects and a lack of attention to detail. When in-house teams are under tight deadline restrictions, corners can get cut. In fact, most in the developer community agree that outsourcing is the best way to go for timely and on-budget development projects.

During last week’s webinar on IT Transformation featuring Marc Cecere, vice president and principal analyst for Forrester Research, many questions presented by participants went unanswered due to time constraints. Because these questions are likely being asked by many in the IT arena, we asked Marc’s webinar co-host, Pete Pizzutillo of CAST to provide answers to the three most frequently asked questions.

I have been an East-Coaster all my life. I’ve lived, worked and even attended college in states that all lie East of the Mississippi. However, throughout my 18 years working in the technology business, my clients have been spread out around the U.S. and abroad. I’ve found myself doing phone calls before the sun rises and well after it has set. That’s just the way it is in this business.

My father was proud of his military service. He believed that young men and women could learn a lot not only from having served in the armed forces, but from having actually experienced the stress that comes with "taking fire."

Every year, Senator Tom Coburn compiles the Wastebook – A Guide to Some of the Most Wasteful and Low Priority Government Spending of 2011.

After listening for many years about the European debt crisis, the downgrading of U.S. debt and every other tale of woe about debt, I believe my patience is owed an enormous debt...and seeing as today is my birthday I would like it paid off immediately!

Kudos to Roger Sessions, the CTO of ObjectWatch. Recently, Sessions took a stand supporting “the intentional architectural design of simplicity into a software application,” which he dubbed “simplility.”

Last week’s admissions of bugs in newly released software by Apple and Google were just the latest reminders that the battle between bringing software products to market quickly and optimizing software quality is coming to a head in a year that has seen far more than its share of software outages, malfunctions and security breaches. Most of these problems have been the direct result of problems with the structural quality of software and have cost the companies hit by them a great deal both financially and in terms of reputation.

Recently, as I sat on the Northeast corridor train, the ticket-taker informed us that we would be delayed 15 minutes. As I thought about the impact on my day, a flutter of activity rippled through the cabin. Passengers called bosses, colleagues, wives and customers spreading the news. What was interesting was that the relayed news was different: some people doubled the time, others bumped it up to solid hour and, shockingly, no one made it shorter.

Bravo to Joe Little, who writes the Agile & Business blog.

Little recently penned a piece about the intersection of Scrum and technical debt titled “Scrum Hates Technical Debt.” I’m sure it does, but I think what he really means is that true Scrum hates technical debt.

It’s not uncommon for organizations to hold onto their application software and IT systems longer than they should. This is particularly true for government agencies – Federal, state and local. When you combine an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality with budget cuts and comfort levels of staffers, there is little impetus for change.

I’m a big fan of things that make sense. Simple explanations, using metaphors to explain the otherwise inexplicable, incorporating landmarks into driving directions and splitting up large projects to get them done faster are all concepts with which I find favor.

This is why, when I first learned about Scrum, it seemed like a valid way to develop software faster, or at least more efficiently. In my mind, it made sense that if you were to build multiple parts of a single application simultaneously and then bring them together, the final product could be built much faster.

Whenever a company chooses to outsource, there is a certain relinquishment of control. It is simply neither possible nor desirable to hold tightly to the reins of all aspects of an outsourced project. It stands to reason, therefore, that studies in the industry have revealed that many in IT management either are dissatisfied with their outsourcers or feel their outsourcers have “made up” work to pad their billings.