Small-team development in a competitive environment

The telecommunications industry is undergoing rapid and continuous change. To be successful in today's dynamic market, competitors must quickly identify and embrace new opportunities. Fortunately, companies have at their disposal enormous amounts of data and high-speed computers that can help them analyze opportunities and hasten their entry into new markets. Unfortunately, the software needed to support these efforts takes precious time to design and develop. Traditional software development methodologies might not suffice in such a fast-paced environment. Thus, alternatives are needed to shorten response time and provide greater flexibility to market-driven changes. This paper discusses AT&T's successes with a small-team approach to software development. Rather than maintaining separate functional organizations having well-defined roles and responsibilities, a single, closely knit team is established consisting of customers, systems engineers, and developers. The team's overarching goal is to help AT&T customers solve business problems as quickly as possible.