By Stephan Schmidt, mentor at www.berlinstartupacademy.com

1. IT for CEOs
What CEOs and Founders
Need to Know About
Software Development
Stephan Schmidt, Vice CTO, brands4friends

2. Me
Stephan Schmidt
Vice CTO brands4friends
@codemonkeyism
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

3. Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

4. What CEOs and Founders
Need to Know About
Software Development
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

5. Dragons
Management
Black Magic
Top
IT
AP
G Voodoo
?
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

6. That’s wrong!
Can’t manage
Hidden risks
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

7. What should you ask?
What should a CEO ask his CTO?
(VP Engineering, Lead developer, …)
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

8. Stuff that risks your
business or has huge
revenue impact.
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

9. Green Shifting.
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

10. Questions
to ask?
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

11. What is our largest risk?
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

12. How many SPOFs do you have?
(People and technology)
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

13. When was your last Backup? Where is it?
When has it been tested the last time?
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

14. When will we hit the wall?
(More on that later)
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

15. Development is a solved problem
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

16. Waterfall
Resources
($$$)
Time Scope
Kanban (Lean) Agile (Scrum)
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

17. Time to market => more money
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

18. Time to Market
Largest lever is NOT development.
Largest lever is decision phase.
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

19. Development Start
Idea
Front-up Development
Problems are here
Everyone focuses
here

20. Market
Opportunity
Feeling of
urgency
Time relative to competitor
Reinertsen 1998
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

21. Top Management Attention of top
possible impact management for a
project
Reinertsen 1998
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

22. 1 women needs 9 months to deliver a baby.
9 women do deliver a baby in 1 month.
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

23. 1. Feature
2. Feature
1. Feature
2. Feature
3. Feature
4. Feature
5. Feature
3. Feature
4. Feature
5. Feature
Time Time
Parallel Serial
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

24. Performance
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

25. Scope
Time
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

26. Scope
Time
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

27. Scope
∞
Time
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

28. Technical Debt
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

29. Technical
Debt
Time
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

30. Technical
Debt
WALL
Rewrite
Time
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

31. Work left
Technical
to do
Debt
Pressure
Time
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

32. Lines of
Code
BAD
Ok
GOOD
Time
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

33. How long does it take?
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

34. Brooks Law:
Adding people to a late project makes it later.
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

35. Software estimation is usually done by the
wrong people.
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

36. Cone of Uncertainty
4x
1x Time
Software Complete
Detailed Design
Complete
UI Complete
Requirements
Complete
0,25x
Initial Idea
Steve McConnell
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

37. Bad Cone of Uncertainty
4x
1x Time
Requirements
Complete
0,25x
Initial Idea
Steve McConnell
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

38. 10% 50% 90%
Probability
Estimation
/Time
1. July 1. August 1. October
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

39. Usually Estimation is not needed!
Focus on Time to Market and
What not when
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

40. And don’t forget …
Do not hire developers
if you don’t know what you do.
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

41. Thanks!
Questions?
@codemonkeyism
stephan.schmidt@brands4friends.de
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

42. Sources
“Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art”,
Steve McConnell
“Developing Products in Half the Time”,
Donald G. Reinertsen
“The Mythical Man-Month”,
Frederick P. Brooks
“Peopleware”,
Tom DeMarco
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

43. DON’T FORGET!
Maintenance typically consumes
40 to 80 percent of software costs.
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

44. Productivity
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

45. The most important factor in software work is
the quality of the programmers.
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

46. The best programmers are up to 28 times
better than the worst programmers.
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

47. Developers need 15 minutes
to reach the ZONE.
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

48. Site note:
No telephones.
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

49. Tools.
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

50. No silver bullet.
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

51. War on Talent
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT

52. When your recruiting pipeline is empty
3 months recruiting
+ 3 months notice period
+ 1 current month
= 7 months from need to filled
Stephan Schmidt - What Top Management needs to know about IT