The Process Alphabet

Process Essentials

We always need a common language to describe the process. Find more about various attempts in Modeling the process: Rolling wave with Practices. There are better options than a reductionist description of the software process as a set “independent” of (unrelated) practices. 

Starting Ideas

 

• People first
• knowledge work: people over processes and tools 
• Process fundamentals are inter-related 
• e.g., we cannot decide about the requirements management approach without thinking also about the solution, quality, or the life-cycle.
• Process state evolution is always an Information Rolling Wave
• we always acquire/craft/validate the information incrementally, no matter our beliefs. It is not just a simplistic state transition.
• Core Agile Practices are essentials for a Lean & lightweight process
• harmonize and optimize multiple aspects at the same time
• Context matter
•  different teams, products, target businesses will require different approaches 
• Continuous improvement is fundamental 
• we cannot really adapt without that
• we cannot face competition and challenges without continuous improvement.

Copyright © 2018 Valentin Tudor Mocanu

Process "Alphabet"

Basic elements that could be used to model the process:

• Life-cycles 
• which life-cycles are used, definitions and selection criteria
• Core Agile Practices 
• coverage and guidance to acquire core software domain-level skills
• Adapt to context 
• guidance about selecting practices in context and selection criteria
• Teal Teams & Organizations -
• Cellular, self-organizing, adaptive, self-awareness, with evolutionary purposes. Be Awesome by respecting the others and willingly collaborate with them.
• Information Rolling Wave  
• life-cycle, practices, context, value stream - all must fit together in our information rolling wave toward building a Consumable Solution. 
• Looking ahead and feedback dimensions should be both represented for all disciplines and all timing levels by appropriate practices
• Continuous Improvement  
• should be an explicit goal with explicit guidance

Expectations

Process "alphabet" fundamentals should be addressed by:

• any Agile/Lean method
• any process customization in a specific team/product/business context.

Practices Selection Criteria

Sources of guidance for practices selection:

• Industry-proven experience
• Context: product, business milestones, team, etc.
• Life-cycle used in the context: timing aspect

INTER-DEPENDENCY - Life-cycle and practices are interdependent:

• The selected life-cycle becomes a context for practices selection 
• Example: you cannot select manual testing & comprehensive non-executable specification/documentation for Continuous Delivery. The feedback cycles for all kinds of information must be much shorter: specific timing must be reflected in the selected practices
• The team set of known practices it is a context for life-cycle selection.
•  Example: you cannot select/perform Continuous Delivery if you do not have skills for the practices that make quick validation and testing as TDD, to fit in the short CD life-cycle.