Common Roles in A Software House
Organizing a software house is very specialized type of management skill, where experienced persons can turn the organizational problem into a unique benefit. For example, having sub-teams spread in different time zones may allow a 24-hour company working day, if the teams, systems and procedures are well established. A good example is the test team in time zone 8 hours ahead or behind the development team, who fix software bugs found by the testers.
A professional software house normally consists of at least three dedicated sub-teams :
- business analysts who define the business needs of the market
- software designers/programmers who create the technical specification and write the software
- software testers who are responsible for the whole process of quality management
In bigger software houses, greater specialization is employed, and quite often there are also:
- technical writers who write all the documentation such as user guides
- release specialists who are responsible for building the whole product and software versioning
- graphic designers who are particularly important in the gaming industry and elsewhere. They are normally responsible for the design of the graphical user interface.
- maintenance engineers who are behind two, three or more lines of support
- consultants responsible for making the solution operational, especially if some specialist knowledge is necessary. Examples of this include: building multidimensional cubes in business intelligence software, integrating with existing solutions, and implementing business scenarios in Business Process Management software.
The cons:
- people are not focused so much on the specialization
- each person must be very flexible and have the ability to play each role (not each person is willing to do that)
- the approach is possible just for smaller, less formalized organizations
The pros:
- each person has full knowledge about the full production cycle
- people are doing various tasks what makes especially young people excited about their work
- there is a very good possibility to manage the work load especially in crisis situations like "all hands on pump"
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Famous quotes containing the words common, roles and/or house:
“Civil government being the sole object of forming societies, its administration must be conducted by common consent.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“There is a striking dichotomy between the behavior of many women in their lives at work and in their lives as mothers. Many of the same women who are battling stereotypes on the job, who are up against unspoken assumptions about the roles of men and women, seem to accept—and in their acceptance seem to reinforce—these roles at home with both their sons and their daughters.”
—Ellen Lewis (20th century)
“The house one story high in front, three stories
On the end it presented to the road.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)