10x Software Development

Travel Restrictions and Offshore Development

Steve McConnell — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:40:06 GMT

One benefit of my job is that I get to talk to people from hundreds of companies every year, and the people I work with talk to even more people. In recent discussions I've seen a disturbing trend emerging -- disturbing because it's so common and because the effects are so easily predictable...(read more)

State of the Practice Survey

Steve McConnell — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:21:00 GMT

Construx has developed the State of the Practice Survey with the goal of better understanding which software practices really work, which really don't work, and identify trends in practice adoption. Survey participants will receive a summary report of the findings later this year in advance of the...(read more)

Facebook Page

Steve McConnell — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:13:35 GMT

I now have a public Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/n/?pages/Steve-McConnell/198720075270&mid=8a4602G316afb94G1ae8a37G4c . I plan to use this page for small scale blog entries, updates on what I'm reading, announcements, and so on....(read more)

Free Webinar: 10 Deadly Sins of Software Estimation

Steve McConnell — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:05:09 GMT

I'll be giving a free webinar tomorrow at 10:00 am Pacific time on the 10 Deadly Sins of Software Estimation. You can sign up here: http://www.sdtimes.com/content/webinars.aspx Here's the full announcement: The average project overruns its planned budget and schedule by 50%-80%. In practice,...(read more)

Next Generation Project Planning Tool: LiquidPlanner 2.0

Steve McConnell — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:33:00 GMT

I receive several requests a year to sit on various advisory boards, and I always say no--I just don't have the time. Last year I received a request I couldn't refuse from Charles Seybold, Bruce Henry, and Jason Carlson at LiquidPlanner . I had known Charles and Bruce when they were at Expedia...(read more)

Construx Offers Free Training for Laid-Off Software Workers

Steve McConnell — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:51:00 GMT

After listening to doom and gloom economic reports for the past few months, we decided we would try to do something to brighten our little corner of the world. Here's our official press release about it: Construx Software has designated 25% of its public seminar seats free of charge to software workers...(read more)

2009 ECSE Meeting Topics Announced

Steve McConnell — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:51:04 GMT

The 2009 Executive Council for Software Excellence (ECSE) meeting topics have been announced. They are: January Successful Leadership in Software Development February Overcoming a Legacy of Poor Quality March Organizational Structures April Accelerating Organizational Change May Working Effectively with...(read more)

New White Papers

Steve McConnell — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:43:27 GMT

We've recently posted a few new white papers on our website, along with some existing papers. These are free to members (and membership is free). 10 Keys to Successful Scrum Adoption Scrum is a project management approach for Agile software development and is the most commonly adopted Agile approach...(read more)

In Defense of the Bill Gates / Jerry Seinfeld Ad #2

Steve McConnell — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:22:00 GMT

Say what you like about the new Bill Gates /Jerry Seinfeld ads, I have to approve Bill's choice of bedtime reading. He's reading from Section 18.2 of Code Complete 2. (It's about 1:10 into the video.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBWPf1BWtkw I thought I was the only person who read Code...(read more)

Software Executive Summit 2008 Rapidly Approaching

Steve McConnell — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:22:55 GMT

After Labor Day most of my focus goes into our annual Software Executive Summit . We are now in the final registration period -- with a $1000 public seminar voucher bonus for people who register by September 15. I'm very excited about the speaker lineup this year. In addition to me, Martin Fowler...(read more)

Agile Software: Business Impact and Business Benefits

Steve McConnell — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:38:00 GMT

Agile literature focuses on the benefits Agile provides to developers and development teams, with a secondary focus on the benefits Agile provides customers. Much of the Agile literature also asserts that Agile practices are more responsive to business needs. Many businesses are embracing Agile and seeing...(read more)

New Software Executive Summit Speaker

Steve McConnell — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:11:00 GMT

I'm pleased to announce that we've added a new speaker to our already-stellar speaker lineup for this year's Software Executive Summit . Mike Morrissey, VP of Infrastructure at RIM (the BlackBerry company), will be giving a talk about Managing in a Hyper-Growth Environment ( more details...(read more)

Software Executive Summit Details Announced; Early Registration Incentive

Steve McConnell — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:10:00 GMT

I am pleased to officially announce the details of the 2008 Software Executive Summit , to be held October 27-29, 2008 in Seattle, Washington. The Summit provides a rare opportunity for top software executives to compare software development challenges and solutions in a small-group-discussion format...(read more)

New Software Executive Report Available: Managing Core Development

Steve McConnell — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:39:00 GMT

One of my activities is moderating monthly discussion groups on software executive topics. The output of those meetings are captured in the Construx Software Executive Reports . Our newest report, "Managing Core Development," is now available. Here's an excerpt: “Core” code always refers...(read more)

Software's Classic Mistakes--2008

Steve McConnell — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:43:00 GMT

In 2007 my colleagues at Construx Software and I updated the list of classic mistakes from my 1996 book Rapid Development . Throughout 2007 we conducted a survey to determine the frequency and severity of these classic mistakes. In other words, we wanted to get a more quantitative sense of just how "classic"...(read more)

Measuring Productivity of Individual Programmers

Steve McConnell — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:22:00 GMT

My last couple of posts on productivity variations among programmers and the Chief Programmer Team model gave rise to some discussion about hazards of measuring software productivity at the individual programmer level. Software engineering studies normally measure productivity in terms of time to complete...(read more)

Chief Programmer Team Update

Steve McConnell — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:28:00 GMT

One spinoff from the 10x difference in programmer productivity was the Chief Programmer Team structure. The idea of the chief-programmer team was originally developed at IBM during the late 1960s (Baker 1972, Baker and Mills 1973). It was popularized by Fred Brooks in the Mythical Man-Month (Brooks 1975...(read more)

Productivity Variations Among Software Developers and Teams: The Origin of "10x"

Steve McConnell — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:15:00 GMT

Some blog readers have asked for more background on where the "10x" name of this blog cam from. The gist of the name is that researchers have found 10-fold differences in productivity and quality between different programmers with the same levels of experience and also between different teams...(read more)

How to Scale Up Quickly

Steve McConnell — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:22:00 GMT

The question of how to scale up quickly in a software startup company is a perennially tough issue. There are some good ways to get started -- starting with a core of really senior people is one time-honored approach. Starting with a core team of people who have worked together at another employer is...(read more)

Software Development Seminars in New York City

Steve McConnell — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:15:00 GMT

I'll be in New York City next week teaching "Software Estimation in Depth." This is an enjoyable class to teach. It has great lab exercises, and it's fun to see the lightbulbs going off in people's heads as they "get" the key concepts in software estimation. You can read...(read more)

Technical Debt Decision Making

Steve McConnell — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:18:00 GMT

[This is an expansion of one of my comments on an earlier Technical Debt post ] When you get to a point where you are debating taking on technical debt, people normally consider two possible paths, one of which is the "good but expensive" path and the other of which is the "quick and dirty"...(read more)

Technical Debt

Steve McConnell — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:06:00 GMT

The term "technical debt" was coined by Ward Cunningham to describe the obligation that a software organization incurs when it chooses a design or construction approach that's expedient in the short term but that increases complexity and is more costly in the long term. Ward didn't...(read more)

5 Questions on Agile Development

Steve McConnell — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 18:37:00 GMT

PM*Boulevard interviewed me earlier this summer about Agile development. Below I've excerpted the PM*Boulevard interview, updated some of my answers, and added a little additional commentary. 5Qs on Agile with Steve McConnell Readers of Software Development magazine once named Steve McConnell one...(read more)

Building a Fort: Lessons in Software Estimation

Steve McConnell — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 16:31:00 GMT

Also Known as: How I Spent My Summer Vacation My big project this summer was building a fort for my kids. I'd wanted to build a clubhouse or treehouse or fort or something for the past few years, but we didn't have a good place to put it. Then while clearing some blackberries in the spring I...(read more)

Industry Benchmarks About Hours Worked Per Week

Steve McConnell — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:44:00 GMT

One of my readers asked the following very reasonable question: We are looking for industry benchmarks detailing the amount of time developers spend on a percentage basis in the following three categories: 1) Core job activities (writing, testing, deploying code, etc.) 2) Meetings 3) Administrative activities...(read more)