Outside-in Software Development

Book excerpt: "Outside-in thinking complements any approach your teams may be taking to the actual implementation of software, but it changes how you measure success. A successful outside-in team does a lot of learning and not much speculation." —Tom Poppendieck Build Software That Delivers Maximum Business Value to Every Key Stakeholder Imagine your ideal development project. It will deliver exactly what your clients need. It will achieve broad, rapid, enthusiastic adoption. And it will be designed and built by a productive, high-morale team of expert software professionals. Using this book's breakthrough "outside-in" approach to software development, your next project can be that ideal project. In Outside-in Software Development, two of IBM's most respected software leaders, Carl Kessler and John Sweitzer, show you how to identify the stakeholders who'll determine your project's real value, shape every decision around their real needs, and deliver software that achieves broad, rapid, enthusiastic adoption. The authors present an end-to-end framework and practical implementation techniques any development team can quickly benefit from, regardless of project type or scope. Using their proven approach, you can improve the effectiveness of every client conversation, define priorities with greater visibility and clarity, and make sure all your code delivers maximum business value. Coverage includes Understanding your stakeholders and the organizational and business context they operate in Clarifying the short- and long-term stakeholder goals your project will satisfy More effectively mapping project expectations to outcomes Building more "consumable" software: systems that are easier to deploy, use, and support Continuously enhancing alignment with stakeholder goals Helping stakeholders manage ongoing change long after you've delivered your product Mastering the leadership techniques needed to drive outside-in development