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Systems Development:

Articles, white papers and case studies on the joys of specifying, designing, developing and delivering systems in the real world - not the easiest of places.
 

Articles/White Papers

• Software Inspections: are not for Quality, but for Engineering Economics Tom Gilb says it is more relevant to view Inspection as a way to control the economic aspects of software engineering rather than a way to get 'quality' by early defect removal. PDF Download (76 Kb)
   
• Ten Basic Design Principles: and some Implications basic ideas about designs that we can acknowledge, teach and practice by Tom Gilb. The principles explained are...

1. Design is means
2. Valid Design
3. Good Design
4. Best Design
5. Temporal Design (and Design Half-Life)
6. Multiple Value'
7. Design Costs
8. Design does not Impact Function
9. Architecture principle
10. Design Evolution principle

• Basic Requirements Structure an extract from Tom Gilb's writings on requirements specifications.
   
• Rich Requirement Specifications Tom Gilb outlines the use of his planning language 'Planguage' for clarifying requirements specifications
   
• Quantifying The Qualitative how to avoid vague requirements by means of a clear specification language. Tom Gilb
   
• Is there a Sequence or Hierarchy to Functional & Performance Requirements discussion just this side of wackiness, by Chris Dale
   
• How Quality is Assured by Evolutionary Methods (265kB PDF download)
  A booklet by Niels Malotaux of N R Malotaux Consultancy on how quality assurance is integral to evolutionary (Evo) delivery thanks to the learning capabilities built in to Evo methods. Sections include: -
     
      - the roles of Quality and functionality in development projects
      - the role of the Plan-Do-Study(Check-Act cycle in Evo and Quality Assurance
      - the basics of Evo delivery, products, projects and process
      - timelines and time-boxing
   
• Optimising the Contribution of Testing to Project Success (198kB PDF download)
  A booklet by Niels Malotaux of N R Malotaux Consultancy on evolutionary testing. As with the others in the range Niels has published, we highly recommend this booklet. Sections include: -
     
      - Evolutionary Project Management & Evo cycles in testing
      - The problem with bugs
      - Defects are symptoms
      - The Defects typically overlooked
      - Is defect-free software possible?
      - Databases for: Change Requests, Problem Reports, Risk Issues
      - Metrics

Case Studies

• Software Process Improvement how to design the software process to raise productivity, improve quality, reduce cycle times and give dependable deadline performance... in a few months