- 1 The Development Problem
- 2 Developing Products
- 3 Software Projects Are Nonlinear
- 4 Teams as Dynamic Nonlinear Systems
- 5 The Project Plan
- 6 Approaching Development Risk
- 7 A Word of Caution: No Silver Bullets
- To Learn More
3.7 A Word of Caution: No Silver Bullets
The product approach may be a good framework for understanding system development, but it is not a silver bullet. Its application takes a significant investment from software managers: You must understand how to apply the approach in a detailed, disciplined way and lead your organization in adopting it. Fortunately, there is a detailed software methodology, the Unified Process, that provides the activities, phase specifications, and milestones needed to apply the product development approach to software. The Unified Process is discussed in Chapter 5.
There is a second type of investment for software managers: The success of the product development approach requires the ongoing involvement of all levels of management. This is a good thing. It is addressed in Chapter 6.