The PMBOK guide defines a process as “a set of interrelated actions and activities performed to achieve a specified set of product, results, or services”. Process in the context of software development, is closely associated with project management. Software processes also referred to as software engineering process or software methodologies, are a set of related activities that result in the development and delivery of a software project or product.
Over the years, software processes have evolved as the nature of work has changed. Waterfall model, was a popular model and has been in use for decades. It is still a relevant model with many multi-years long term strategic projects follow waterfall model. Agile processes have become prominent in recent years and enable software development in an iterative model that allows faster feedback and delivery cycles albeit in smaller chunks of scope.
There are other prevalent process models within the software industry like prototyping, iterative and spiral. All these are slight variants of the agile model. Most start-ups today adopt the agile methodology in some shape or form.
Agile Process
Agile as a methodology adoption for software has been prevalent in the industry for a long time. Agile is the ability of the team to create and respond to change. It enables the team to respond the change in uncertain times. One of the key aspects of agile that makes it effective in startups is the ability to react quickly to changing priorities. It empowers the development team to make decisions necessary to fulfil customer needs rather than waiting for permission.
Effectiveness of the Process
As the software industry has matured, most projects have moved away from the waterfall model. Software startups today prefer the agile model which, while creating some ambiguity and uncertainly, allows the stakeholders to provide faster feedback and enables quicker changes in the software. However, there are a lot of overarching activities that overlap various processes. These include risk management, cost management, and procurement management. Software startups, while adopting any of the aforementioned processes, should be aware that a key activity for the successful implementation of these processes is collaboration. With remote work becoming the norm due to the pandemic and online audio/video tools being used heavily for collaboration, proper project management tools are key to the success of the projects.
Software startups need to use of measures like Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to measure the success of adoption of processes to ensure business performance. Various aspects of the process adoption like on-time delivery, product quality, business value, product features, project visibility, predictability and process improvements are key to business success and should be measured using various tools. KPIs are the building blocks of data visualisations. These data visualisation help users relate their progress in relation to their goals.
There are various tools available which are effective in enabling a software startup to record, maintain and measure the progress and effectiveness of the process for manage a project or product. Startups should invest heavily in the implementation of these tools to ensure that the negative impact of remote work and lack of visibility is countered through the usage of these tools.
In addition to the adoption of these tools, software startups must define a process of feedback loop to ensure that the measured output from these tools is used to improve the processes.
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