Last week in an interview, I was asked how I might approach reviewing and improving an org's Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC).
SDLC is often depicted as a perfect circle. Everything always moving forward perfectly, synchronously in a happy, little ♾️ loop. A Merry-Go Round, where every cycle means 📈 and 💸.
The Phases of the Lifecycle typically don't represent this, but, when working with new or existing projects, we're typically dealing with 7-9 personas, sometimes more. Stakeholders, Product Managers + Product Marketing, Engineers, Designers, QA / Testers, Devops, Support teams, sometimes Sales teams, and more.
It's less of a Merry-Go Round, but rather a Trapeze act. Success relies on the teams' interpersonal and cohesive strengths, trust and the organizational prowess of the ringleader.
There is a great deal of nuance from company to company, from team to team, and even from project to project.