2006/05/25
What can be done to improve current development process? Should one try to find answers from organizations like SEI or ISO or from some good books ? I believe that both are important sources but the most critical element is something else - actual experience with actual projects and preferably with actual people.
What I mean by experience is not some itchy feeling in the back of your head but concrete and explicit knowledge. The only way to get this kind of knowledge is by reflection - that is by taking few steps back and analyzing things. What can be improved, what went well, what happened etc - these questions should be asked on regular basis. Many agile processes suggest to have this activity after every iteration. I don't know how much people are currently doing this already but I think there is quite much room for improvement.
For example we could start writing these kinds of retrospectives for all projects and publish these inside the company so that others from other projects can also learn. It's human to repeat the mistakes of oneself not to mention the mistakes done by others but at least it would be interesting reading 
