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   Since our early days of developing software (think punch cards!), we’ve been struggling to master the complexity of a typical application. Beginning with the work of Ed Yourdon and structured methods, we glimpsed the potential for deriving order from the chaos of a development effort. Through the years, we’ve experimented with different techniques from eXtreme Programming, through Shlaer-Mellor, and on to Rational Unified Process (RUP). Along the way, we examined the effectiveness of each technique. For those that worked well, we kept them and integrated them into our development process. For those that didn’t work as well, they were tossed in favor of another technique.

   Our experience indicates that it is possible to bring order to the chaos of software development, and we’ve codified our techniques into the Software Engineering Effectiveness Model (SEEM). Our application of SEEM over the years has confirmed our belief that a 40 hour work week is possible. That reasonable schedules can be created and adhered to. That delivering a useful product to the customer on time that actually provides value to their business is within every teams’ reach.

   We know that SEEM may not apply to all projects and development teams, but we encourage you to do as we have. Try out the SEEM techniques and see if they work for you and your team. If so, let us know. If not, let us know so we can refine our techniques and activities for the next project.

   The pursuit of deriving order from chaos will never be complete, as we continue to build ever more complex software systems. With this in mind, we continue to gently extend and refine SEEM.

Copyright 2007 Isotope28