Programming is a deeply creative activity

2-Speed software development Programming is a deeply creative activity

15.09.2021 Editor:

in 2021, “two-speed software development” will become the standard for industrial companies, predicts Edward Lenssen, CEO of Beech IT, which specializes in the creation of complex software systems, websites and apps.

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Beech CEO Edward Lenssen: “In the future, software will become a decisive competitive factor in almost all industries.“

(Photo: Petra Lenssen PHOTOGRAPHY)

While the previous software systems would be further optimized with traditional methods and at conventional speed, new applications would have to be created in “Warp Speed” in order to counter the competitive pressure on the market. “Companies that develop their software in the 2020s as slowly as in the decade before run the risk of being swept away by new and faster competitors,” warns Beech CEO Lenssen.

He clarifies: “In the future, software will become a decisive competitive factor in almost all industries. Whether it’s logistics, finance, industrial production, real estate, sales or whatever division – the provider with the better software will be ahead of the competition. Software is synonymous with greater customer proximity, higher efficiency and lower costs.“

Scrum brings “Warp Speed”

As a remedy for this dilemma, Edward Lenssen advises the proven Scrum methodology. The English word Scrum, literally translated as “crowd”, means that interdisciplinary teams work together creatively and deliver first results within a short time. In a so-called sprint, a working software is developed within a few weeks or even days. Although this has only minimal functionality, it is sufficient to find out whether you are on the right track.

“It is a huge difference whether one correctively intervenes after a week of programming and changes the direction or, for the first time after a year of development time, it can even be determined whether the direction is right, “Beech CEO Lenssen compares” Warp Speed ” with conventional development methods.

In order to achieve the required speed increase, the Beech boss recommends that companies add external programming teams to their previous development efforts, which should work exclusively with Scrum. “Within a very short time, functional models are created that are useful for giving the user an impression of the future application,” says Edward Lenssen.

2-Team approach with external capacities

Edward Lenssen knows from experience that the challenge for IT departments is to determine how much effort is required to further improve existing systems and how much energy is to be put into new applications. Associated with this is the question of which programmers are allowed to develop the old programs further and which ones must familiarize themselves with the new matter.

“I have already seen the productivity of entire IT departments sink because of an incorrect division of the programming team,” says Beech BOSS Lenssen.

He recommends” definitely ” involving external programming teams in 2-phase software development. The reason: “External parties are not integrated into the social structures of the IT department. They feel it is neither a degradation nor a reward to work on the new or old systems.”Only when the external software developers have started does Lenssen recommend that internal programmers be used in the speed classification according to their wishes.

Edward Lenssen says: “You have to keep in mind that programming is a deeply creative process in which the feel-good factor plays an essential role. Arbitrary classification inevitably leads to low productivity or low quality of the resulting program code.“

Background: Beech IT is a Dutch software house specializing in the development of highly complex software systems, sophisticated websites and outstanding apps. The clientele includes well – known European corporations, medium-sized companies, startup/investor teams, agencies on behalf of customers, system integrators and e-commerce providers from many industries.

This post is originally from our partner portal Embedded-Software-Engineering.de.