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Enduring Ideas in the Realm of Software

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Process

Patterns and Practices of Lean Software Development

Lean Thinking is a paradigm of production and can’t easily be reduced to a process recipe. The particular form of any Lean process will always depend upon the form of the product that is created by that process. However, any Lean process will realize a few essential principles. If we apply these Lean principles to software development, we may find some practices that express those principles in a way that is useful and sensible for the medium.

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Introduction to Lean Software Development

Editor’s note: This is a guest post on Lean Software Development by Corey Ladas. If you don’t know Corey, he’s a product development methodologist. He brings more to the table than most on engineering process because of his background working on integrated mechanical / electrical / software products.  What I like about Corey is his …

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Customer-Connected Engineering Slides

Customer-Connected Engineering Slides (PDF Download)

Customer Connected Engineering (CCE) is a practices we use across our patterns & practices teams for engaging customers throughout the life cycle. We involved customers during the planning, development, and release of our deliverables. This is a draft slide set that shares how we do Customer Connected Engineering inside patterns & practices, including our key practices and guiding principles.

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Manufacturing Metaphor and Software

5 Reasons Why the Manufacturing Metaphor Doesn’t Work for Software

“Software is a great combination of artistry and engineering.” — Bill Gates Is building software the same as manufacturing a physical product?  Can you really create an assembly line for software? In today’s world, software plays an increasingly important role in our lives. From the apps we use on our smartphones to the complex systems …

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Engineering Practices Frame

One of my earlier projects on the patterns & practices team at Microsoft was originally called Life-Cycle Practices.  Later, I renamed it to Life-Cycle Templates.  Finally, I settled on Engineering Practices.   Engineering Practices became a key organizing theme for our work and served as the foundation for our ALM frame. Knowledge AreasThe Engineering Practices Frame …

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