When do sw processes apply?

Skrifað á ensku af því að það eru svona tveir sem hafa hafa bæði áhuga/skoðun á þessum pælingum og lesa íslensku :)

FYI, I completed my M.S. degree by implementing a software development process and measuring the benefit it delivered to the software organization involved. Even before the conclusion had emerged, I had convinced myself that formal processes in software development are more often than not overdesigned and unessessary. However, formal processes (including a single checklist as a form of a stand-alone process) do sometimes apply and a recent posting from Alistair Cockburn sparked my to write this reminder for myself that processes do sometimes apply. Most of this is copied from his posting ...

• "When staff turnover is high. Not just at fast food restaurants, but also in sw dev, some houses have high turnover. When staff turnover is low, the embodied organizational knowledge lies in many people, who can pass it along personally to the newbies personally ..... "
  
  This in mho has to do with keeping the ball rolling as, given that the organization is hiring intelligent developers, will spend too much time wondering about how things should be done and improving work traditions, barely seeing their intelligent work traditions being put to the test .... before leaving. When the turnover is high, putting short-stop developers into code/application context is expensive enough, the organization can't afford thinking work practices from scrach every 6-8 months.
• "When the organization grows. Same as above but not because the oldies left, rather because the rate of arrivals is just too great, or they are located too far from the campfire."
  
  Usually the fast growing organizations are also swamped with projects, with key players buzy as hell, and nobody has the complete "rulebook" in her head to explain to the new arrival.
• "When we want not to forget something (the checklist aspect of processes). I know the pilots know how to check everything before takeoff, but I'm still happy they walk down their checklist."
  
  Despite my previous statement regarding process overdesign, I think checklists are in many cases extremely useful and contribute greatly to effective risk management.

...phew, this was more than I intended ...