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    The Fragile Methodology
    The Fragile Methodology
    The Fragile Methodology
    Ebook147 pages1 hour

    The Fragile Methodology

    By Mr. Fragile

    ()

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    About this ebook

    A hilarious satire on the state of enterprise software development and delivery.

    If you're involved with creating or delivering software in ANY way, you need to read this book.

    You'll find comic relief if you directly contribute to the making of enterprise software.

    If you're a business person that commissions software, you'll get an eye opening glimpse into why that software you requested took so long and had so many bugs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLulu.com
    Release dateMar 4, 2016
    ISBN9781329944411
    The Fragile Methodology

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      Book preview

      The Fragile Methodology - Mr. Fragile

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      0

      The Fragile Methodology

      1

      (Mis)Guiding Principles

      1.1

      Business Stakeholders

      2

      CEO/COO

      2.1

      VP

      2.2

      IT Stakeholders

      3

      CIO/CTO

      3.1

      Director

      3.2

      Perfect Software With No Effort

      4

      Hacking Together A Team

      5

      In(Out)take

      6

      Product Owner

      6.1

      Scrum Master

      6.2

      (Over)Architecting Software

      7

      Enterprise Architect

      7.1

      Application Architect

      7.2

      Writing (Wronging) Code

      8

      Development Manager

      8.1

      Engineering Lead

      8.2

      Engineer

      8.3

      (Mis)Managing Data

      9

      Database Administrator

      9.1

      (Sometimes) Delivering Software

      10

      Build Master

      10.1

      System Admin

      10.2

      (Barely) Testing Software

      11

      Test Engineer

      11.1

      Manual Tester

      11.2

      (In)Securing Software

      12

      CSO

      12.1

      Conclusion

      13

      Glossary

      The Fragile Methodology

      Motivation

      Make no mistake! It is the goal of the author for software everywhere to be written and delivered more cost effectively with greater value than it is today. The approach taken in this book looks at widely held practices and non-practices that make that not so. The advice in this book is essentially this; if you want to keep getting the results you are currently getting from your software teams, then keep doing what you are doing. But how do you know what practices are causing such fragile software that takes a long time to deliver? Well, throughout the pages of this book you will find lots of examples. None of the suggestions for delivering fragile software are new or made up. They are being practiced by individuals in ALL positions of the vast majority of companies and on most software teams.

      Clearly, the title is a play on words of the venerable Agile Methodology and the (Mis)Guiding Principles outlined in this book were uninspired by the format of the Agile Manifesto. The Agile Methodology has revolutionized software development and has enabled those who adhere to its wisdom to deliver flexible software in less time with less defects. Unfortunately, it is only a small fraction of companies and software teams that actually adhere to the practices. They'll tell you that they do agile because they do scrum meetings or they point their stories, but they're not anywhere near agile. They fail spectacularly on 75% of what the manifesto encourages. This practice is generally called Fake Agile and it is a large contributing factor to fragile software everywhere.

      The Fragile Methodology is not only about the antithesis of Agile Methodology. There are plenty of ways to end up with fragile software that have nothing to do with agility. This isn't the first time the term 'Fragile Methodology' has been used but when it has, it has always pointed to poor practices that make for fragile software.

      Relatively speaking, with some training, it is easy to write code. Delivering valuable software, however, is difficult. It requires specialized knowledge of many types and coordination of tens and sometimes hundreds of people. Countless books have been written, whole methodologies have been spawned, and world wide conferences are held every day in order to tame the beast that is software development. And yet, countless organizations continue to write fragile software that takes much, much more time than it should to deliver.

      Having been a student of these great books and methodologies I have learned a few things about writing and delivering software. I have had the privilege of being on the receiving end of software consulting efforts and on the giving end, most at Fortune 500 companies. If there's one thing that I'm sure of it is this: most tech workers do not take the time to read, much less understand, the best practices, techniques, and methodologies that are required in order to deliver valuable software on time and on budget.

      Frankly, there are probably too many books and videos and seminars on how to deliver software in the best possible way. There are no books, that I know of, that shine a slightly cynical but humorous light on horrendous software practices by facetiously encouraging organizations to wholeheartedly embrace these practices with the goal of fragile software in mind, while giving ample suggestions, techniques, and anecdotes on how to do it.

      Now, pay attention because this is the only time I will speak in serious terms about delivering fragile software. This entire book is a complete and unapologetic satire on the practices and processes that enable teams to continually deliver software late, over budget, and filled with defects. No doubt, many find this approach unhelpful and I'm not sure that those people can be helped. The people that will find this book helpful are the ones that will say Oh my God, we do that!! and they will have a good laugh. They may be unaware that they are following a bad practice, or they may be aware and haven't been able to change it, but they will know that they're not alone.

      It is my hope that, by poking fun, I can shed some much needed light on the various ways that software so often becomes fragile. If one person, or one team can identify with one or more of the practices or non-practices outlined here that make for fragile software, then maybe they will be motivated to seek a better way and make their software and the process of creating it a little less fragile.

      Dedication

      To software practitioners everywhere who continually seek better methods, speak their mind to no avail, and never give up trying to improve the process of building software. Hopefully it will shed some light on your plight, encourage you to keep up the fight, help others see the light, and maybe one day, put the ship that you sail, right.

      Copyright

      © 2016, Aryl Software Consulting

      ISBN #: 978-1-329-94441-1

      Except as provided by the Copyright Act no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

      Acknowledgements

      To my family who listen, support, and love, unconditionally, I thank you.

      To my like minded brothers who have taught me so much, listened, supported, and stood up to the nonsense, politics, arrogance, and mediocrity that plagues software development. Rachid, Elijah, Dusty, Ed, Ryan, Mark, and Cary I thank you.

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