The Essentials Of Modern Software Engineering: Free The Practices From The Method Prisons!

Contents

Foreword by Ian Sommerville xvii

Foreword by Grady Booch xix

Preface xxi

PART I THE ESSENCE OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING 1

Chapter 1 From Programming to Software Engineering 3
1.1 Beginning with Programming 4
1.2 Programming Is Not Software Engineering 6
1.3 From Internship to Industry 8
1.4 Journey into the Software Engineering Profession 12
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 15

Chapter 2 Software Engineering Methods and Practices 17
2.1 Software Engineering Challenges 17
2.2 The Rise of Software Engineering Methods and Practices 18
2.3 The SEMAT Initiative 28
2.4 Essence: The OMG Standard 29
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 30

Chapter 3 Essence in a Nutshell 31
3.1 The Ideas 32
3.2 Methods Are Compositions of Practices 32
3.3 There Is a Common Ground 34
3.4 Focus on the Essentials 37
3.5 Providing an Engaging User Experience 37
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 38

Chapter 4 Identifying the Key Elements of Software Engineering 41
4.1 Getting to the Basics 41
4.2 Software Engineering Is about Delivering Value to Customers 43
4.3 Software Engineering Delivers Value through a Solution 45
4.4 Software Engineering Is Also about Endeavors 48
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 50

Chapter 5 The Language of Software Engineering 53
5.1 A Simple Practice Example 53
5.2 The Things to Work With 54
5.3 Competencies 61
5.4 Things to Do 62
5.5 Essentializing Practices 63
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 65

Chapter 6 The Kernel of Software Engineering 67
6.1 Organizing with the Essence Kernel 67
6.2 The Essential Things to Work With: The Alphas 69
6.3 The Essential Things to Do: The Activities 72
6.4 Competencies 75
6.5 Patterns 77
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 81

Chapter 7 Reflection on Theory 83
7.1 Where’s the Theory for Software Engineering? 84
7.2 Uses of Theory 87
7.3 Essence Is a General, Descriptive Theory of Software Engineering 87
7.4 Toward a General Predictive Theory of Software Engineering 91
7.5 A Theoretical Foundation Helps You Grow 93
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 94
Postlude to Part I 94
Recommended Additional Reading 95

Chapter 8 Applying Essence in the Small—Playing Serious Games 97
8.1 Progress Poker 99
8.2 Chasing the State 105
8.3 Objective Go 108
8.4 Checkpoint Construction 111
8.5 Reflection 113
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 114

PART II DEVELOPING SOFTWARE WITH ESSENCE 115

Chapter 9 Kick-Starting Development Using Essence 117
9.1 Understand the Context Through the Lens of Essence 118
9.2 Agreeing on the Development Scope and Checkpoints 122
9.3 Agreeing on the Most Important Things to Watch 124
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 126

Chapter 10 Developing with Essence 127
10.1 Planning with Essence 132
10.2 Doing and Checking with Essence 138
10.3 Adapting a Team’s Way of Working with Essence 140
10.4 How the Kernel Helps Adapt Their Way of Working 141
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 143

Chapter 11 The Development Journey 145
11.1 Visualizing the Journey 145
11.2 Ensuring Progress and Health 146
11.3 Dealing with Anomalies 148
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 149

Chapter 12 Reflection on the Kernel 151
12.1 Validity of the Kernel 151
12.2 Applying the Kernel Effectively 151
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 152
Postlude 153
Recommended Additional Reading 153

PART III SMALL-SCALE DEVELOPMENT WITH PRACTICES 155

Chapter 13 Kick-Starting Development with Practices 157
13.1 Understand the Context Through the Lens of Essence 158
13.2 Agree upon Development Scope and Checkpoints 159
13.3 Agree upon Practices to Apply 165
13.4 Agree upon the Important Things to Watch 167
13.5 Journey in Brief 169
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 170

Chapter 14 Running with Scrum 171
14.1 Scrum Explained 171
14.2 Practices Make a Software Engineering Approach Explicit and Modular 173
14.3 Making Scrum Explicit Using Essence 174
14.4 Scrum Lite Alphas 179
14.5 Scrum Lite Work Products 182
14.6 Scrum Lite Roles 184
14.7 Kick-Starting Scrum Lite Usage 187
14.8 Working with Scrum Lite 188
14.9 Reflecting on the Use of Scrum with Essence 198
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 202

Chapter 15 Running with User Story Lite 203
15.1 User Stories Explained 204
15.2 Making the User Story Lite Practice Explicit Using Essence 207
15.3 User Story Lite Alphas 208
15.4 User Story Lite Work Products 209
15.5 Kick-Starting User Story Lite Usage 211
15.6 Working with User Story Lite 211
15.7 The Value of the Kernel to the User Story Lite Practice 215
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 218

Chapter 16 Running with Use Case Lite 221
16.1 Use Cases Explained 222
16.2 Making the Use Case Lite Practice Explicit Using Essence 227
16.3 Use Case Lite Alphas 230
16.4 Use Case Lite Work Products 233
16.5 Kick-Starting Use Cases Lite to Solve a Problem Our Team Is Facing 237
16.6 Working with Use Cases and Use-Case Slices 240
16.7 Visualizing the Impact of Using Use Cases for the Team 244
16.8 Progress and Health of Use-Case Slices 245
16.9 User Stories and Use Cases—What Is the Difference? 246
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 248

Chapter 17 Running with Microservices 249
17.1 Microservices Explained 250
17.2 Making the Microservice Practice Explicit Using Essence 252
17.3 Microservices Lite 256
17.4 Microservices Lite Alphas 257
17.5 Microservices Lite Work Products 259
17.6 Microservices Lite Activities 267
17.7 Visualizing the Impact of the Microservices Lite Practice on the Team 270
17.8 Progress and Health of Microservice Development 271
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 272

Chapter 18 Putting the Practices Together: Composition 275
18.1 What Is Composition? 276
18.2 Reflecting on the Use of Essentialized Practices 282
18.3 Powering Practices through Essentialization 283
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 284
Recommended Additional Reading 284

PART IV LARGE-SCALE COMPLEX DEVELOPMENT 287

Chapter 19 What It Means to Scale 289
19.1 The Journey Continued 289
19.2 The Three Dimensions of Scaling 291
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 294

Chapter 20 Essentializing Practices 295
20.1 Practice Sources 295
20.2 Monolithic Methods and Fragmented Practices 296
20.3 Essentializing Practices 298
20.4 Establishing a Reusable Practice Architecture 299
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 303

Chapter 21 Scaling Up to Large and Complex Development 305
21.1 Large-Scale Methods 306
21.2 Large-Scale Development 308
21.3 Kick-Starting Large-Scale Development 309
21.4 Running Large-Scale Development 315
21.5 Value of Essence to Large-Scale Development 322
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 324

Chapter 22 Reaching Out to Different Kinds of Development 325
22.1 From a Practice Architecture to a Method Architecture 326
22.2 Establishing a Practice Library within an Organization 328
22.3 Do Not Ignore Culture When Reaching Out 330
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 331

Chapter 23 Reaching Out to the Future 333
23.1 Be Agile with Practices and Methods 335
23.2 The Full Team Owns Their Method 337
23.3 Focus on Method Use 337
23.4 Evolve Your Team’s Method 338
What Should You Now Be Able to Accomplish? 339
Recommended Additional Reading 339

Appendix A A Brief History of Software and Software Engineering 341

References 349

Index 353

Author Biographies 369