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Category Archives: Q&A

Nonfunctional Requirements Q&A

Non-functional requirements Q&A: We answer questions from readers about using nonfunctional requirements on a real software project, and how to use them on a real software project. Non-functional requirements: Planning out how well your software will work A couple of months ago I wrote a post called Using nonfunctional requirements to build better software. It’s [...]

The perils of a schedule

We got this e-mail a few days ago from one of our readers: Hello, I bought your book, “Applied Software Project Management.” It seems very good overall, but I can’t get past the fact that your book seems to imply that software requirements come after the project plan/WBS/scheduling. Am I missing something? On page 40, [...]

Iterative development is not unplanned development

I got a great question from a software developer who also happens to be a fellow CMU alum. I have a question related to managing scope creep with respect to “on-going”/iterative development processes. I’m currently managing a project where we’re redesigning my application’s primary workflow. Simply put, the app is currently designed to have users [...]

Check out our O’Reilly Week in Review podcast interview

James Turner‘s weekly O’Reilly Week in Review podcast this week features an interview with Jenny and me about Beautiful Teams, and what goes into making a team work well. I’ll transcribe a quick excerpt from the interview – we’re talking about our interview in the book with NASA manager and team leader Peter Glück: Jenny: You [...]

Bringing a “teamwork feel” to your projects

Jenny and I have been thinking a lot about teams lately. Working on Beautiful Teams really focused us on teamwork: what makes teams gel, what causes them to run into trouble, and what you can do to them. So when I got this question recently, it was really timely: I’ve been working on bringing more [...]