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Cross-functional teams and software development process
Subject:Cross-functional teams and software development process From:John Garison <jgarison -at- ide -dot- com> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 22 Feb 2000 08:58:09 -0500
Fellow Techwhirlers,
I have been slogging through the latest STC Journal which features a series
of articles on cross-functional teams. I am privileged to work for a
software development company that considers the doc group to be an important
resource and involves us in the planning, design, and development of our
products. As Doc Manager, I am project leader for the next release of the
product; some of my writers have been leaders of feature teams, and every
feature team has a writer as a team member. In these leadership roles, we
are responsible for coordinating the efforts of designers, programmers, and
QA engineers (and doc, too!). It has been very successful, and I can't
imagine going anywhere that doesn't do things this way.
We are now in the process of defining our software development process -
codifying the ways we have been working.
My question is - has anyone else done this? Does anyone out there run their
software development business according to a PACE-type process that mandates
phase reviews with core teams and product approval committees? If so - how
successfully does it work? Does it help?
All responses will be kept confidential unless you tell me it's OK to
release the information.
Also - if anyone wants to consider this as a presentation topic at a future
STC (or other) conference, I'd be willing to discuss that, too!
John
John Garison
Documentation Manager
Integrated Development Enterprise, Inc.
150 Baker Avenue Extension
Concord MA 01742-2174
