> I'm getting off-track here. The point that I am trying to make is that we > need to look at the actual or worst-case, in order to create solutions that > will work for the majority of installations. We can create endless > Ivory-tower solutions to the problem that will be pretty and get great > reviews, but if they aren't workable for the majority of real-world > situations, they won't get used in the real-world.
I've been very interested in software engineering practices for a while now. Very often, programmers are more desirous of find a better way to design and maintain code than managers. In fact, there's even a scale devised by the folks at Carnegie Mellon called the Capability Maturity Model (http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmm/) that catagorizes the "evolution" of your company's software engineering pratices. In a nutshell, the more the process of SW engineering is controlled and measured, the better the quality of the software produced. Not only that, the projects can be done ON TIME and ON BUDGET. Unfortunately, the process of project management and software engineering requires a change on the *entire* change of management and programmer. Either everyone reads from the same hymnal or mediocre results ensue. So why aren't more managers eager to tackle improving their software practices? For one thing, any concerted effort to change will cost time and money. Don't forget plain old inertia, either. But, I think the most compelling reason to avoid mature SW engineering practices is a distrust that project management/SW Eng can ever improve (see the quote above and, to an extent, Brook's _Mythical Man Month_). Sure, programming is an art, but so is brige-building and highway construction. Yet, the process that creates these real-world constructs is very carefully controlled and monitored. Software Engineer is lagging behind its physical counterparts. Hopefully, with the dotcom bubble burst, companies will begin to take software projects seriously again. That can only mean good things for those of us in the trenches. For more on this line of thought, check out Steve McConnell's _After the Gold Rush_. -- ---------------- Joe Johnston - http://taskboy.com "A closed mouth gathers no feet."
