As I\'ve written about in other questions here, the project that I\'m working on
ID: 639112 • Letter: A
Question
As I've written about in other questions here, the project that I'm working on now has no software process. That means no documentation (including hard copy requirements or specification), no source control, no bug database, bugs are "fixed" (hopefully) and new code is added at the same time, and no formal testers - we would fail the Joel Test so bad, it's not even funny.
Yesterday, my manager asked me to write a document about how to begin to fix these shortcomings. Note that I'm just an intern, here for 6 months. I'll be leaving around Thanksgiving in November to return to school. However, I think that I can perhaps get this project moving in the right direction, but I'm not sure where to even begin. I'm currently using CiteSeer and Wikipedia to attempt to find some papers and such that describe software processes and implementing them, but any advice, personal experiences, or links to blogs, papers, wiki articles, or anything else would be greatly appreciated.
Explanation / Answer
I would suggest that you look into Agile programming.
There's lots of variants, but they tend to have a few things in common:
Regular review and re-prioritisation of features.
Continuous integration and automated unit tests.
Focus on communication over documentation (in practise this means wiki-style documentation as you go over huge inflexible specs written in advance).
Flexible estimates resulting in burn-down charts and velocity metrics.
Regular prototypes that are reviewed over 200 page specs with sign-offs.
Quality at source, or as close as possible.
Regular stakeholder review - an extension of understanding your customers.
Get software out to market (and making money) ASAP.
Direct communication as much as possible.
A good place to start would be MSF Agile or Scrum.
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