Software Development Methology

BlueSpud

Can anyone direct me to a methodology that is suitable to a very small software company, i.e. 3 people. I can find lots of information that is suitable to large s/w companies, but impractible for us. Any steer is much appreciated.

Procasinator

BlueSpud wrote: »

Can anyone direct me to a methodology that is suitable to a very small software company, i.e. 3 people. I can find lots of information that is suitable to large s/w companies, but impractible for us. Any steer is much appreciated.

XP or Agile, if it takes your fancy.

http://www.extremeprogramming.org/

I would definetly recommend some of the approaches either way: upfront testing (or at least keep pace with implementation, and don't have testing and development as 2 discrete phases), continuous integration (regular automatic builds and testing), frequent customer communication.

carveone

You milage may vary of course but I like this list:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html

from Joel Spolsky who runs a small software firm in New York (at least it started small!). Certainly a lot of this applies to even very small firms - the smaller they are, the more likely they are to lose code due to thinking they're too small to benefit!

I worked for a company, 100+ people, which only introduced source control the year before I arrived (2001). They'd been in business since 1980. They'd lost stacks of code over the years to the point where customers were using programs we no longer had the code for!

Skud

BlueSpud wrote: »

Can anyone direct me to a methodology that is suitable to a very small software company, i.e. 3 people. I can find lots of information that is suitable to large s/w companies, but impractible for us. Any steer is much appreciated.

XP/Agile is good, but it depends. XP/Agile is meant for projects with high requirements changes, no set deadlines per se and high customer involvement.

Traditional models like waterfall are better when there are strict deadlines, requirements are fixed.

Two factors you should consider really are what best suits your customers and what best suits your team. It might take you awhile to refine your model and make it your own, play to your strengths. Something like CMM can help you develop your life cycle and make it better.

That joel article is a good starting point also.

Anima

If theres only 3 people, why don't you try to come up with or adapt a methodoly that works best for you?

BlueSpud

Guys, thanks for the responses, much appreciated, i thin the horses for courses approach is best, taking the relevent wisdom from the differing methodologies.