Mission Statement?

I don't like the phrase "Mission Statement" anymore than anyone else who has spent hours reading Dilbert and looking at the long, inane statements of the usual corporation. All the same, I sincerely value the focused direction of a "mission". A rallying cry is a powerful thing.

This last April, after months of work and the usual frantic rush to meet a deadline, my friend (and SWDev development partner) Cotten Blackwell began to ask the "who are we" questions that every company should have an answer to. The other developers in our group were struggling with where they fit and how they should conceive of themselves going forward. He handed me the book "Fire Up Your Business" and challenged to me dig deep and determine what that authentic mission truly was. Many false starts later, I touched on two facts about my life in software development that were the passion driving everything else.

Excellence

Most software sucks! Ask any developer maintaining someone else's code. The great majority of software in use today was never designed, let alone designed well. I've taught good software methodology and process to many groups of developers in many companies over the years. Working through those classes and discussions and designing a lot of software has taught me that excellence IS possible. It also taught me that it can be quite difficult and time consuming.

This drive for building the best software is so much more than just an artist's perfectionism. The best software is maintainable, bad code isn't. That in itself can determine whether an application delivers value to a corporation. It's estimated that well over 80% of the lifetime cost of a software development effort is spent after the release of the application. Maintenance Matters!

Part of the effect of that drive to make only the best software comes out in my tool choices and recommendations. I push for the use of object oriented methodologies and tools that can leverage that investment in thought when it comes time to turn thought into code.

Time to Market

The second passion that I've served in my development career is Speed! The best software, delivered too late, can lose it's value completely. Talking to the entrepreneur or the marketing person hoping to bring a product to market, they will nearly unanimously tell you that "so-so now beats perfect later ever time!"

The challenge is to balance the "need for speed" against the long term importance of building "the best software". How do I accomplish this trade off? In short, using XP to shorten development cycles, deliver value faster and reduce or eliminate the "artifact arthritis" that calcifies around so many formal software development methodologies.

The Last Word

I want to say this one more time, for those who've taken the time to read this entire essay, this Mission is real to me. This is not merely a group-think, conference-room, offend-no-one mission statement from some seminar. This is the mission that I passionately pursue in business. If the best software, the fastest way has value in your project, I'll have value to contribute.