-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Brooks, Ruven Sent: Friday, 27 February 2004 8:14 PM To: 'Derek M Jones'; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: PPIG discuss: Programmer's mental models The inability of programmers to adapt their mental models to the application domain is a huge problem for commercial software development. Rather than rely on a programmer's undertstanding of the application to fill in the gaps, product architects are forced to write huge, detailed specs. If I've got a detailed spec, why should I spend lots of money to have it coded by some high paid western European or North American programmer? Why not outsource it to a third world country where even programmers aren 't paid very much?
It also gives programmers who do have a good mental model of the application a big advantage. A handful of sharp people who really understand the application area and what the customer's real requirements are can often put together a product in a fraction of the time of some larger organization... <snipped> Derek, While I can acknowledge the problem, the solution is not as simple as replacing "huge, detailed specs" with programmers assumed to "have a good mental model of the application". Mental models are not confirmed "good" until they have been validated. Validation can only be done through the examination of some work product. It has long been shown that validation through documentation is magnitudes of order (this is not an exaggeration) cheaper than through the testing of software. -- Hanania ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PPIG Discuss List ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/
