As I started reading the article What Gartner Is Telling Your Boss, I was worried. More management-speak about RAD, faster, with less testing. Then I got happy.
Apparently, Gartner (or at least the presenters at their Application Development Summit) has a clue about how development should be done.
Themes to watch are, apparently:
…the new application development lifecycle in which the emphasis is delivering applications better and faster (which doesn’t sound so new to me); project and portfolio management; “frontier” application development, encompassing Web 2.0; and (with the most fervor) project management and governance.
Which all bodes well for me and the folk I work for, as these are the very things we’re telling our clients and working our collective backsides off to get in place. It’s not always easy, particularly when clients are large, siloed and bureaucratic, but sometimes it does happen.
My take; if you’re a developer you need to work smarter and not harder and get your mind around GTD, frameworks, multiple languages, Web 2.0 and design patterns. If you’re a manager you need to do the same from a different angle; it’s time to understand the concept of “program management” rather than “point solutions”, learn how your people work rather than trying to stamp out 8×5x48 (plus unbilled hours) clones (read The Hacker FAQ and Leading Geeks).
