Can you suggest a set of commandments to make projects run smoothly?

Question

Can anyone suggest a set of "commandments" to make everyone operate efficiently during a development project? I am looking for commandments on how Dev and QA and Management should interact. If you lookup Agile or Scrum development models they can explain peoples roles and how things work but it doesn't define a set of bylaws that protect peoples roles from each other.

Micromanagement shouldn't need to occur when rules work properly. QA should have all information they need to test and managment should define what a successful test is. Etc.

Answer 1

If such a set of rules existed and was known to work well, a large industry of consultants would disappear overnight. By the contrapositive, there are no "rules" that meet your qualifications.

Answer 2

The relationships should all be spelled out pretty well in Agile. Of course, with Agile the point isn't to protect you from each other, it's to eliminate differences between you.

For instance, you are supposed to get rid of the concept of code ownership, if you find broken code you fix it. If you need help, pair with the original author.

QA needs representation in the core team. They don't get left behind because they are in every scrum meeting--as, of course, is the customer.

Management's role (if there is management) in agile is to stay out of the way and provide treats :)

These kind of things weren't just made up for fun, they really are important.

Answer 3

All the roles are part of the same team, so everyone share the same goal. People collaborate, meet daily, communicating directly, preferably face-to-face.

Everything is based on trust, there is no need for "protection".

Answer 4

How about the agile manifesto?

http://agilemanifesto.org/

And the 12 priciples, which I'm sure you'll link through to:

http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html

Edit

Sorry, I misunderstood the question. These are still some good principles!

Answer 5

Just keep communicating and addressing trouble when it comes up.

It's like in marriage: you can't prepare for every contingency beforehand -- you must be willing to deal with every setback that occurs by talking it through with your partners and finding a way to cope with it.