NZ readers will probably have heard of Novopay, and the issues it’s had that have made the media. For non-NZ readers, it’s basically a new payment system that went bad and messed up a load of people’s salary and wages payments. This story, Ministers knew of 147 defects with Novopay, highlights the fact that the software team involved had entered into the project as a fixed price deal, and the article makes it sound like things went sour pretty quickly. I don’t have any insight or knowledge into how the Novopay project was run, but after reading the story...
One of the things I’m struggling with right now is to express a few thoughts which have been milling around in my head regarding lightweight and effective strategies and approaches for small business / projects. When I say “small business” what I really mean is the New Zealand version of small business – REALLY small business. The following links are all related to this thinking – thinking which will hopefully surface eventually in some meaningful way (when actual work isn’t quite as hectic). Case Study: Rapid iteration with hardware – the whole site is an interesting read, however...