Lesson 13 Introduction to Programming Student Resources

• 
  Be very thorough in gathering product requirements, and document them in writing. Make sure that all those involved with the project agree on these requirements.
  
• 
  Break large tasks into smaller, manageable pieces, and identify deadlines for each.
  
• 
  To ensure accountability from all team members, make sure that deadlines are clear and that people are required to report regularly on their progress.
  
• 
  Include procedures throughout the project for monitoring and maintaining quality. This includes frequent testing. Peer review, a process used for checking work by one’s own equals or peers, is a good idea.
  
• 
  Keep control of your project, but not too rigidly—change is a part of life, and that includes software development.
  
• 
  After the project is completed, ask the team to reflect on the project to identify what worked well and what should have been done differently. This information can be helpful for future projects.
  

When the source code (programming instructions) for a software product is made available to users and other developers, we refer to that software as open source software.

The open source movement started because some developers thought that software products could be made better if companies and programmers worked together. Those who distribute open source software expect and encourage others to examine the source code to find problems and to make changes to improve the product. The Linux operating system and a lot of the Linux application software are examples of open source software.

The availability of open source software has influenced software development in another way. Companies who develop proprietary software (software whose source code is not publicly available) have to work a little harder to keep their share of the computer market, because people now have open source alternatives.