Control "inventory" and organize favorable weapons for software production

There is absolutely no error. Inventory also exists in the production of software projects!Inventory refers to partially completed work.In a broad sense, it refersAll the work that has started but has not yet created value for the customer. In software project production, we can easily point out "inventory ":

1. The demand or demand change list that has not been confirmed with the user is inventory;
2. The design work that has not been verified by the development phase is inventory;
3. The Code not submitted for testing is inventory;
4. After "finished", the development and analysis and design tasks that fail to pass the acceptance are also in stock;
5. ...

In theory, inventory in software development is all the work in one delivery. This may be a one-month workload, a half-year workload, or even a year's workload. However, a long period of "inventory" will bring us a lot of risks. For example, if user a asks me to produce 100 parts and asks me to finish the production within one month, I have two possible practices: (of course, there are more)

1. Organize production. After one month, 100 parts will be delivered at one time;
2. Organize production and deliver three parts to the customer on average every day;

The above two production methods seem to have the same results, but the results differ greatly. The first method is more risky than the potential cost, because the second method has the following advantages:

1. Reducing the pressure on inventory management. I don't need a warehouse with a maximum capacity of 100 pieces. Even if I have multiple batches of production units at the same time, my configuration management pressure will be less;
2. Until the last day, my production has been in progress. If the three parts delivered by the user are not satisfied every day and some defective parts are rejected, I can quickly adjust the production, correct or revise them in time; avoid waiting for my delivery on the last day. After the user completes the check, tell me to go back and find the worker and modify it!

Haha, this example is very simple. Anyone can understand it! Let's take a look at the inventory story of the IT systems around us:

 

Story 1: The story of demand change

During the meeting yesterday, a colleague talked about the project's exceeding planned workload and asked the user to confirm that the project had taken place for 10 months from February to February, however, the customer may not be able to get back if he has doubts about 10 months. Yes, it may be hard to catch up. Why? Aside from the details of the specific work content, a total of nine months of inventory are now delivered to the customer, can the customer easily recognize it? If the inventory for these nine months is the same as for other projects, the results may be very different through weekly meetings or monthly memos.

Story 2: System Development story 1

A project was developed for nearly one year before it was delivered to end users for trial use. It is difficult to discuss with users about launching the project. Yes, because a total of one year of inventory is delivered to the customer once, and the customer has no foundation for this trust. After one year of production, the customer can only see the problem. It is very difficult to talk about launching the product. I have a half-covered face. I just looked at it and got married. You didn't dare! (In those years, CIEN threatened Yang to marry his elders and green eyes before he could get the antidote. Yang was not yet available !)

 

There is also an inventory story in terms of software quality. My experience is that quality is mainly not about how many people you have invested in building a large post-testing team, but about the timing and methods of testing, it is too late to test all the functions.

Yes, these are the stories of software inventory. Mastering the methods, making "Frequent" delivery is a good way to reduce inventory! In terms of software systems, zero inventory is the result of every delivery to the customer.

Manager, are you ready to control the inventory?