DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Refcards Trend Reports Events Over 2 million developers have joined DZone. Join Today! Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile Manage Email Subscriptions Moderation Admin Console How to Post to DZone Article Submission Guidelines
View Profile
Sign Out
Refcards
Trend Reports
Events
Zones
Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks

The Importance of Governance in Software Development

Mahesh Chopker user avatar by
Mahesh Chopker
·
Jul. 03, 14 · Interview
Like (1)
Save
Tweet
Share
29.47K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free
In this article I would like to highlight the importance of governance in software development life cycle. 
What does 'Governance' means; in Oxford dictionary the meaning it has is:
  • the action or manner of governing a state, organization, etc.
  • rule, control

In software development life cycle we can think of governance as monitor, measure and management of software. Now what aspect to governance in software depends on the stage at which software development is currently?

In the following table I am trying to show the various software development stages, what entities need governance and tools/techniques used for governance:

Development Stage

What needs governance

How do we (or tools/techniques used for) govern?

Business Problem

  • The source of problem statement (real business case vs. developer’s wish)
  • Project roadmap, timeline and resource constraints
  • Process exists to ensure right stakeholders are engaged, agreed upon project roadmap is defined, and resource pool, delivery timeline and risks are identified

Requirement Gathering

  • Use Case and Requirements
  • Effort level and Risks
  • Requirement document reviewed and signed off from all major stakeholders (business, development and testing teams)

Architecture

  • Alignment with corporate IT
  • Non FRs like Performance, Security
    • Architecture Review

    Design

    • Design guidelines
    • Design review

    Implementation

    • Code Quality
    • Feature implementation
    • Code Review
    • Code Coverage
    • Feature Demo

    Testing

    • Test Plan and Strategy
    • Test Results and Coverage
    • Score card on Non-FRs
    • Review of Test Plan, Strategy, Coverage, and Results
    • Review of Non-FRs score card or compliance report

    Documentation

    • Documents
    • Documentation Review

    Deployment

    • Deployment Instructions
    • Deployment document review
    • Deployment team’s feedback on ease of deployment and 1st few weeks report from production

    Service / Maintenance

    • Ease of troubleshooting
    • Number of Customer found defects
    • New feature request
    • Tracking production defects and ensuring root cause analysis done on the same
    • Assess and feed feature requests to next release’s project requirements
    • Process to have regular feedback from service team’s

    In summary what is required for effective governance is a right process along with checklist, handoff templates, check points, retrospection meeting, open feedback culture and guidelines/standards.

    The software life cycle and architecture management frameworks like ITIL, TOGAF do help to implement an effective governance process in in software development life cycle.

    Software development

    Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

    Popular on DZone

    • Implementing Infinite Scroll in jOOQ
    • Silver Bullet or False Panacea? 3 Questions for Data Contracts
    • The Real Democratization of AI, and Why It Has to Be Closely Monitored
    • Best Practices for Writing Clean and Maintainable Code

    Comments

    Partner Resources

    X

    ABOUT US

    • About DZone
    • Send feedback
    • Careers
    • Sitemap

    ADVERTISE

    • Advertise with DZone

    CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

    • Article Submission Guidelines
    • Become a Contributor
    • Visit the Writers' Zone

    LEGAL

    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Policy

    CONTACT US

    • 600 Park Offices Drive
    • Suite 300
    • Durham, NC 27709
    • support@dzone.com
    • +1 (919) 678-0300

    Let's be friends: