From The Editor
Our December 2013 Issue brings together some 2013 software management lessons learned from several sources, together with some rather alarming predictions for 2014 and beyond. Articles in the current and previous 2013 Issues have shown that senior management and experienced software professionals are still coming to grips with managing the challenges and realising the benefits from emerging technology. So what are some of the lessons learned?
A December 2013 IDC Worldwide Software Quality study notes “In the face of increasing numbers of highly public failures of business-critical systems, the urgency of attending to software quality analysis has never been more obvious. Around the time frame of one week in August 2013, we saw downtime of stock exchanges on three continents and of Amazon and Google. The crying need to improve corporate and developer hygiene in this area is clear,”
see below the Abstract and link from Worldwide Software Quality Analysis and Measurement 2013–2017 Forecast and 2012 Vendor Shares: Leveraging Code Insight to Avert Risk and Optimize Businesses.
On 12 December 2013, Original Software published its 2013 IT Disaster Hall of Shame, with the comment from CEO Colin Armitage, “As this hall of shame shows, IT disasters can be damaging, disruptive and downright dangerous. And a further layer to technical failures in the age of social media is that they can mobilize large numbers of customers and shareholders to voice their criticisms online, causing lasting reputational damage. Any techy will tell you that it’s impossible to mitigate for every potential failure. But as this list demonstrates, defect detection, quality and testing have to move up the corporate agenda. Skimp on this and you’re really running the gauntlet.” See below for a reprint and link.
2013 also rounds off with a gloomy prediction on the future of Agile by Tom Gilb, author of nine published books, and hundreds of papers on Agile and related subjects. Tom’s classic 1988 book “Principles of Software Engineering Management” is widely acknowledged in the Agile community as a thought leader on iterative and incremental development methods. In a December, 2013 interview published in ISDC News, Tom was asked, “Where will Agile go in 10 years’ time?” His response was “Agile will be defeated, dishonored. Not because Agile isn’t good but because it is badly practiced…” See below, Tom Gilb. Why delivering value to customers makes your business successful and sustainable .
At a more technical level, the first two Software Testing Debates articles has shown some significant differences in opinion between industry gurus and in one case an escalation from dignified debate to open warfare (see Software Testing Debate Becomes Open Warfare.) The latest in the series is Software Testing Debates Part 3 – When Not To Automate, (see below) which gives differing opinions from veteran software testers on the use of software testing automation tools for cloud and mobility testing.
Wishing all our readers success in meeting the challenges and reaping the benefits of innovation in 2014. Don’t forget to book for the QESP Australian Conference on Software Management (ACOSM14) on Thursday 10th April 2014, at the Justice & Police Museum, Circular Quay, Sydney, with a pre-Conference Reception on Wednesday 9th.
To View Programme, Purchase Tickets or read more about ACOSM14 click here.
Ted Smillie
QESP Chairman