I’m travelling back from today’s miniSPA2007 as I write. It’s a hot, cramped journey back to Cambridge by train but it’s been a worthwhile trip in the end.

David Harvey introduced the day by asking us to consider what we’d tell a senior manager was the single most important thing about software development.

Our group’s suggestions included:

• Hiring the right people (and know how to hire the right people - a good project manager was seen as particularly important).
• Giving them the capability to do the job - e.g. providing them with the right equipment, workspace and letting them define and operate and appropriate process.
• There are no silver bullets.
• You’ll never know as much about it as your developers.

Each group then presented their key idea to the others and we were then asked to vote (by standing next to) the advice that most resonated with our own beliefs.

I felt our suggestions were good but probably not catchy enough to be the winner. I was proved right as the largest number of people, including me, clustered around “Software Development is about people, not computers“. If only everyone understood this…