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Feature-driven development (FDD) is an iterative and incremental
software development process In software engineering, a software development process or software development life cycle (SDLC) is a process of planning and managing software development. It typically involves dividing software development work into smaller, parallel, or s ...
. It is a
lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing (sport), rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) boxing weight classes, weight class in the spor ...
or agile method for developing
software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...
. FDD blends several
best practices A best practice is a method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior to alternatives because it tends to produce superior results. Best practices are used to achieve quality as an alternative to mandatory standards. Best practice ...
into a cohesive whole. These practices are driven from the perspective of delivering functionality (
features Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature recognition, could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (machine learning), in statistics: individual measurable properties of the phenome ...
) valued by the client. Its main purpose is to deliver tangible, working software repeatedly in a timely manner in accordance with the Principles behind the
agile manifesto Agile software development is an umbrella term for approaches to developing software that reflect the values and principles agreed upon by ''The Agile Alliance'', a group of 17 software practitioners, in 2001. As documented in their ''Manifesto ...
.


History

FDD was initially devised by
Jeff De Luca Jeff De Luca is a global information technology strategist and an author in the field of software development methodology. He is considered the primary architect of ''Feature Driven Development'' (FDD) circa 1999 JDLBIO a lightweight methodol ...
to meet the specific needs of a 15-month, 50-person software development project at a large
Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
bank in 1997. This resulted in a set of five processes that covered the development of an overall model and the listing, planning, design, and building of features. The first process is heavily influenced by
Peter Coad Peter Coad (born December 30, 1953) is a software entrepreneur and author of books on Computer programming, programming. He is notable for his role in defining what have come to be known as the UML colors, a color-coded Writing systems, notation c ...
's approach to
object modeling In computing, object model has two related but distinct meanings: # The properties of objects in general in a specific computer programming language, technology, notation or methodology that uses them. Examples are the object models of ''Java'', ...
. The second process incorporates Coad's ideas of using a feature list to manage functional requirements and development tasks. The other processes are a result of Jeff De Luca's experience. There have been several implementations of FDD since its successful use on the Singapore project. The description of FDD was first introduced to the world in Chapter 6 of the book ''Java modelling in Color with UML'' by Peter Coad, Eric Lefebvre, and Jeff De Luca in 1999. Later, in Stephen Palmer and Mac Felsing's book ''A Practical Guide to Feature-Driven Development'' (published in 2002), a more general description of FDD was given decoupled from Java modelling.


Overview

FDD is a model-driven short-iteration process that consists of five basic activities. For accurate state reporting and keeping track of the software development project,
milestones A milestone is a marker of distance along roads. Milestone may also refer to: Measurements *Milestone (project management), metaphorically, markers of reaching an identifiable stage in any task or the project *Software release life cycle state, s ...
that mark the progress made on each feature are defined. This section gives a high-level overview of the activities. In the figure on the right, the meta-process model for these activities is displayed. During the first two sequential activities, an overall model shape is established. The final three activities are iterated for each feature.


Develop overall model

The FDD project starts with a high-level walkthrough of the scope of the system and its context. Next, detailed domain models are created for each modelling area by small groups and presented for
peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (:wiktionary:peer#Etymology 2, peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the ...
. One or more of the proposed models are selected to become the model for each domain area. Domain area models are progressively merged into an overall model.


Build feature list

Knowledge gathered during the initial modeling is used to identify a list of features by functionally decomposing the domain into subject areas. Subject areas each contain business activities, and the steps within each business activity form the basis for a categorized feature list. Features in this respect are small pieces of client-valued functions expressed in the form " ", for example: 'Calculate the total of a sale' or 'Validate the password of a user'. Features should not take more than two weeks to complete, else they should be broken down into smaller pieces.


Plan by feature

After the feature list is completed, the next step is to produce the development plan and assign ownership of features (or feature sets) as classes to
programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles Software development, ''software developer'' and Software engineering, ''software engineer' ...
s.


Design by feature

A design package is produced for each feature. A chief programmer selects a small group of features that are to be developed within two weeks. Together with the corresponding class owners, the chief programmer works out detailed
sequence diagrams In software engineering, a sequence diagram shows process interactions arranged in time sequence. This diagram depicts the processes and objects involved and the sequence of messages exchanged as needed to carry out the functionality. Sequence ...
for each feature and refines the overall model. Next, the class and method prologues are written, and finally a design inspection is held.


Build by feature

After a successful design inspection for each activity to produce a feature is planned, the class owners develop code for their classes. After
unit test Unit testing, component or module testing, is a form of software testing by which isolated source code is tested to validate expected behavior. Unit testing describes tests that are run at the unit-level to contrast testing at the integration ...
ing and successful code inspection, the completed feature is promoted to the main build.


Milestones

Since features are small, completing a feature is a relatively small task. For accurate state reporting and keeping track of the software development project, it is important to mark the progress made on each feature. FDD therefore defines six milestones per feature that are to be completed sequentially. The first three milestones are completed during the
Design By Feature A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...
activity, and the last three are completed during the
Build By Feature Build may refer to: * Engineering something * Construction * Physical body stature, especially muscle size; usually of the human body * Build (game engine), a 1995 first-person shooter engine * "Build" (song), a 1987 song by The Housemartins * ...
activity. To track progress, a percentage complete is assigned to each milestone. In the table below the milestones and their completion percentage are shown. At the point that coding begins, a feature is already 44% complete (Domain Walkthrough 1%, Design 40% and Design Inspection 3% = 44%).


Best practices

Feature-driven development is built on a core set of
software engineering Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining Application software, software applications. It involves applying engineering design process, engineering principl ...
best practices A best practice is a method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior to alternatives because it tends to produce superior results. Best practices are used to achieve quality as an alternative to mandatory standards. Best practice ...
aimed at a client-valued feature perspective. * Domain object modelling. Domain object modeling consists of exploring and explaining the domain of the problem to be solved. The resulting domain object model provides an overall framework in which to add features. * Developing by feature. Any function that is too complex to be implemented within two weeks is further decomposed into smaller functions until each sub-problem is small enough to be called a feature. This makes it easier to deliver correct functions and to extend or modify the system. * Individual class ownership (
code ownership In software engineering, code ownership is a term used to describe control of an individual software developer or a development team over source code modifications of a module or a product. Definitions While the term is very popular, there is ...
). Individual class ownership means that distinct pieces or grouping of code are assigned to a single owner. The owner is responsible for the consistency, performance, and conceptual integrity of the class. * Feature teams. A feature team is a small, dynamically formed team that develops a small activity. Multiple minds are always applied to each design decision, and multiple design options are evaluated before one is chosen. * Inspections.
Inspections An inspection is, most generally, an organized examination or formal evaluation exercise. In engineering activities inspection involves the measurements, tests, and gauges applied to certain characteristics in regard to an object or activity. ...
are carried out to ensure good quality design and code primarily by the detection of defects. * Configuration management. Configuration management helps with identifying the source code for all features that have been completed to date and maintaining a history of changes to classes as feature teams enhance them. * Regular builds. Regular builds ensure there is always an up-to-date system that can be demonstrated to the client and help highlight integration errors of source code for the features early. * Visibility of progress and results. Managers steer a project using frequent, appropriate, and accurate progress reporting from all levels inside and outside the project based on completed work.


Metamodel (Metamodelling)

Metamodelling helps visualize both the processes and the data of a
method Method (, methodos, from μετά/meta "in pursuit or quest of" + ὁδός/hodos "a method, system; a way or manner" of doing, saying, etc.), literally means a pursuit of knowledge, investigation, mode of prosecuting such inquiry, or system. In re ...
. This allows methods to be compared, and method fragments in the
method engineering Method engineering in the "field of information systems is the List of academic disciplines, discipline to construct new methods from existing methods".F. Harmsen & M. Saeki (1996). "Comparison of four method engineering languages". In: Sjaak ...
process can easily be reused. The usage of this technique is consistent with UML standards. The left side of the metadata model shows the five basic activities involved in a software development project using FDD. The activities all contain sub-activities that corresponding to sub-activities in the FDD process description. The right side of the model shows the concepts involved. These concepts originate from the activities depicted in the left side of the diagram.


See also

*
Agile software development Agile software development is an umbrella term for approaches to software development, developing software that reflect the values and principles agreed upon by ''The Agile Alliance'', a group of 17 software practitioners, in 2001. As documented ...
*
Behavior-driven development Behavior-driven development (BDD) involves naming software tests using domain language to describe the behavior of the code. BDD involves use of a domain-specific language (DSL) using natural-language constructs (e.g., English-like sentences) ...
*
Project lifecycle In systems engineering, information systems and software engineering, the systems development life cycle (SDLC), also referred to as the application development life cycle, is a process for planning, creating, testing, and deploying an informati ...
*
Software architecture Software architecture is the set of structures needed to reason about a software system and the discipline of creating such structures and systems. Each structure comprises software elements, relations among them, and properties of both elements a ...
*
Software development process In software engineering, a software development process or software development life cycle (SDLC) is a process of planning and managing software development. It typically involves dividing software development work into smaller, parallel, or s ...
*
Software engineering Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining Application software, software applications. It involves applying engineering design process, engineering principl ...


References

* 1. Coad, P., Lefebvre, E. & De Luca, J. (1999). ''Java modelling In Color With UML: Enterprise Components and Process''. Prentice Hall International. () * 2. Palmer, S.R., & Felsing, J.M. (2002). ''A Practical Guide to Feature-Driven Development''. Prentice Hall. ()


External links


Feature Driven Development Community


- Nebulon is the consulting practice of Jeff De Luca
Successful Web Development Methodologies
- Use of FDD for Web Development projects
Delivering Real Business Value using Feature Driven Development
- Article gives basic overview of FDD



- Another book in the Coad Series referencing Feature Driven Development. Authors Andy Carmichael and Dan Haywood
Interview with FDD-Creator Jeff DeLuca
(Podcast) {{Software engineering Agile software development Software project management Software features