What Top ManagementNeeds to Know
About ITStephan Schmidt, Vice CTO, brands4friends

MeStephan SchmidtVice CTO brands4friends@codemonkeyism Stephan
Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Stephan Schmidt - What Top
Management needs to know about IT

What Top ManagementNeeds to Know
About IT Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

DragonsManagement Black Magic Top IT
AP G Voodoo ? Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

That’s wrong!Can’t manageHidden risks Stephan
Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

What should you ask?What should
a CEO ask his CTO?(VP Engineering, Lead developer, …) Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Stuff that risks yourbusiness or
has hugerevenue impact. Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Green Shifting. Stephan Schmidt -
What Top Management needs to know about IT

Questionsto ask? Stephan Schmidt -
What Top Management needs to know about IT

What is our largest risk?
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

How many SPOFs do you
have?(People and technology) Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

When was your last Backup?
Where is it?When has it been tested the last time? Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

When will we hit the
wall? Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

KPI/ SLA• Availability• Bugs in
Release• Bugs found before• Time to Market• Do we hit (when?) the wall? Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

War on Talent Stephan Schmidt
- What Top Management needs to know about IT

Do not hire IT personalif
you don’t know what you do. Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

When your recruiting pipeline is
empty 3 months recruiting+ 3 months notice period+ 1 current month= 7 months from need to filled Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Very good developers are 20%
moreexpensive, but 2000% more productive. Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

30-50% of programmers withprogramming experience
can not program.Cargo Cultists. Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Do not let anyone here
developerswithout a coding test. Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Development is a solved problem
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Waterfall Resources ($$$) Time ScopeKanban
(Lean) Agile (Scrum) Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Time to market => more
money Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Time to MarketLargest lever NOT
in development.Largest lever in decision phase. Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Development StartIdea Front-up DevelopmentProblems are
here Everyone focuses here

1 women needs 9 months
to deliver a baby.9 women do deliver a baby in 1 month. Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

1. Feature 2. Feature 1.
Feature 2. Feature 3. Feature 4. Feature 5. Feature 3. Feature 4. Feature 5. Feature Time TimeParallel Serial Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Market Opportunity Feeling of urgency
Time relative to competitor Reinertsen 1998Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Top Management Attention of top
possible impact management for a project Reinertsen 1998Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Productivity Stephan Schmidt - What
Top Management needs to know about IT

The most important factor in
software work isthe quality of the programmers. Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

The best programmers are up
to 28 timesbetter than the worst programmers. Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Developers need 15 minutesto reach
the ZONE. Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Site note:No telephones. Stephan Schmidt
- What Top Management needs to know about IT

Tools. Stephan Schmidt - What
Top Management needs to know about IT

No silver bullet. Stephan Schmidt
- What Top Management needs to know about IT

Performance Stephan Schmidt - What
Top Management needs to know about IT

Scope TimeStephan Schmidt - What
Top Management needs to know about IT

Scope TimeStephan Schmidt - What
Top Management needs to know about IT

Scope ∞ TimeStephan Schmidt -
What Top Management needs to know about IT

Technical Debt Stephan Schmidt -
What Top Management needs to know about IT

Technical Debt Time Stephan Schmidt
- What Top Management needs to know about IT

Technical Debt WALL Rewrite Time
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Work left Technical to do
Debt Pressure Time Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Lines of Code BAD Ok
GOOD Time Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

How long does it take?
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Software estimation is usually done
by thewrong people. Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Cone of Uncertainty 4x1x Time
Software Complete Detailed Design Complete UI Complete Requirements Complete0,25x Initial Idea Steve McConnell Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Bad Cone of Uncertainty 4x1x
Time Requirements Complete0,25x Initial Idea Steve McConnell Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

10% 50% 90%Probability Estimation /Time
1. July 1. August 1. October Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Probabilityof Completion 100% Time or
Effort Point in Time X Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Brooks Law:Adding people to a
late project makes it later. Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

DON’T FORGET!Maintenance typically consumes40 to
80 percent of software costs. Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

Thanks!Questions?@codemonkeyismstephan.schmidt@brands4friends.de Stephan Schmidt - What
Top Management needs to know about IT

Sources“Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black
Art”, Steve McConnell“Developing Products in Half the Time”, Donald G. Reinertsen“The Mythical Man-Month”, Frederick P. Brooks“Peopleware”, Tom DeMarco Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT