Many may ask why a Business Analyst is writing about the state of development. Aside from a few home experiments and hobby web projects I have never been tasked with developing custom software solutions. I know little about development frameworks, code management, or the language of the developer.
However, what I do have a grasp of is the impact of overpriced custom software solutions on business. What is over-priced? It's subjective and open for debate but if the actual task of software development is eating up more than 40% of in-scope project budget the solution is skating into the overpriced arena. The reasons could be anything from lack of proper skills to poorly defined requirements. Poorly defined requirements and model driven development are the areas I will be focusing on in my next few blog posts.
There is a great overview on the state of model driven development publishing by Forrester research I highly recommend reading. You can download a copy of the research paper from Borland's website.
Over the next month I will cover the following topics:
- Properly defining and managing requirements
- Integrating requirements management into the development process
- The ultimate goal: Reducing time to market for business solutions
I am excited about covering these topics in the coming weeks and look forward to any feedback. I have as much to learn as I do to offer.
