How to survive during Global Recession….

For all people, here are some tips how to survive during Global Recession as a software Engnieer..
1. Automate the Manual JOBS and TestCases
Hope this could easily be implemented in any kind of project.
· Automating Jobs: First try to find out the list of manual jobs if any (Ex. Build process). Automate them first. We can take the build process for example. People working in Development project well be aware of the build process. We have ‘n’ number of open source tools to automate the build process. Examples are anthel Pro, cruse Control Build. So whenever you checkin code to versioning system build is automatically started and placed in some share location. So we can avoid some/much time in taking a build.
· Automating TestCases: Create automated test cases for your applications. That should run before taking the build (This can be done with any build tool like Maven/Ant). If you are a JavaDeveloper, use JUNIT to write testcases for Java Layer and Cactus/StructTestcase/Shale/JSFTestcase for web component test cases. Yes we can test without container for webcomponents. Are you .net user? Use NUnit (That is the only thing I heard).
· Of course we can use PMD/Check Style to automate the code review. In general if anything takes more of your time, try to automate those.
2. Implement Scrum model in your Project: Currently most of them are working in water flow model. This will be taking considerable time(min 3 months) to complete one release if it is very small. So the user or Quality Assurance team should wait till this TAT(Turn Around Time) to see the implementation. I could see we are not able to satisfy the clients with this model. This is the reason we can go for Scrum model. In scrum model the only difference is TAT, yes it is very small (2-3 weeks). We are giving the updates/release on every 3 weeks. By doing so we could satisfy most of our clients however they can see their requirement implementation (hopefully before the billing cycle). Need more details on scrum model? Visit here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(development)
FYI: All the project can’t follow Scrum model. It depends on the type of the project and Client, of course!
3. “Out of the box” Implementation: This we all know and have heard word from managers. Yes we should understand the business, try to find out loop holes/ area of improvements where we can save the money. Not for us guys! For client!
We implemented all of these in our project. it’s cool and going smooth.
Hope you guys do the same to make business different. I am sure you can feel the difference.
All the best!!!