Software development method

When you start to develop a project, your manager arrives and says: "start doing something to allow time to at least deliver something in the first meeting with the client", and then, what to do?

We see several years in the systems development faculty that we must always plan very well before going out doing anything, with documentation of the scope of the project, documentation, and when we enter we are faced with a very different scenario.

There are methods and good ways to develop a system, be it application based or based for use in browsers (which has been the most common nowadays due to the ease of customizing and making changes).

Good practices taught in college are not always carried out on a daily basis, not everything can be used, but they are still good practices in development and should not be ignored.

The planning method most adopted by large companies for critical problems, are related to PMBOK, where 40% of the total project time is dedicated only to business meetings, understanding customer expectations and planning.

Another method used is Scrum, which is based on the theory of planning while creating a certain product, and which generally never meets the customer's expectations, and which constantly requests changes to better suit what was initially proposed to him.

The method through PMBOK, is more demanding and contractual, and any change is not allowed except for the intervention of a new contract and a new planning, and all types of changes focus on negotiating new terms and values.

In the Scrum method, the first meeting with the client, a prototype of what the final product will look like, and in some cases even with part of the functionality working. This type of methodology is generally applied to slightly customized systems, that is, the center of the system is a copy base of other systems.

Let's go to the main differences:

PMBOK	Scrum
First meeting with the client, all members of the project take part to understand the client's needs.	The project starts based on a supposed interest of the client, previously creating the desired item to present at the first meeting, usually composed of 1 or 2 members at most, and never with anyone other than those responsible for the project.
A minimum of 40% of the total project time is used in planning.	A maximum of 5% of the total project time is used for planning.
Little rework, meets all customer expectations.	Elevated or even eternal work until meeting customer expectations. Useful for those who do not want to lose the customer and maintain the service.
Higher cost of changes proportional to the time of the project.	Adjustment time is based on availability. If there is no time, deliver what is already available, and during use, adjust what is missing.
Companies complain that this method is time-consuming in planning and that it is not worth paying high salaries for managers and system designers.	Companies in this scheme have time management problems, because as there is a lot of rework, the more customers you get, the more difficult it is to survive, because the more jobs that appear, you need to keep what already exists.

When we are in college, we obviously chose PMBOK because we perceive its evident advantages, but in a market where the first one wins, Scrum gains prominence, and for growing emerging companies, the cost of time is significant, so keep the customer rework is also a way of building customer loyalty.