Overseeing software project requires replacing memos with demos. Doing that for a few projects is one thing, but a different approach entirely is required to scale that up.
Author Archives: Waldo Jaquith
Preventing lousy vendors from bidding on your custom software project.
Agencies can ward off lousy software developers and attract better ones by owning copyright, publishing open source, and issuing smaller contracts.
Publishing your agency’s software as open source puts you at a major advantage.
There are some enormously compelling arguments in favor of agencies preemptively publishing source code, which results in reduced cost, increased trust, and higher-quality results.
Budgeting for software projects in “scrum team years.”
Scrum-team years give program teams, budgeting, procurement, and oversight a common currency of understanding.
How an agency principal should oversee a major custom software project.
When an agency principal lacks the knowledge to understand and control major software projects, they are handing their control of the agency to some consulting firm’s project manager.
“Agile” versus “agile.”
When writing about Agile software development, I always capitalize the word. This isn’t an affectation, but instead an effort to communicate an important distinction.
The work before the work: what agencies need to do before bringing on an Agile vendor.
An Agile vendor team cannot be successful unless the agency has prepared for them.
“Customized COTS” is the worst of both.
It’s a tar pit, a way to pay for extensive renovations to software that you do not own, and now feel that you cannot leave, because the sunk cost fallacy is real.
Why governors put this over here, with the rest of the fire.
When presented with a disastrous, multi-year, failing, mission-critical software project, a governor will double down on the failing strategy. Here’s why.
An Excel error caused a $202 million state budget shortfall.
Excel shouldn’t serve as load-bearing infrastructure. Its files can’t be diffed, version controlled, or tested. Virginia’s failure shows the cost of doing so.