[lug] software engineering

[George Sexton]

Nate Duehr wrote:
> It's ALWAYS needed, so cost effectiveness is really the driver.  :-) 
> How many software shops do you know that ask the engineers to look at 
> ways to create code more inexpensively?  I've never heard that 
> question asked of a developer ever in the business world.

One of my comments has been that if builders switched materials on every 
other building, they would have a lot more problems.

Most development shops change tools every other years, or their tools 
are revised to the point where the whole development methodology has 
changed.

Two years ago, struts was it. Every one was doing it. Before that it was 
Zope. This year it's Ruby on Rails. Let's not forget, the whole web 
services, along with this year's follow up losing idea, AJAX/Web 2.0.

Because developers change tools so frequently, they:

1)   Don't ever develop real proficiency.
2)   Don't know how to cost-estimate jobs.
3)   Use stable tools that have been debugged and documented to the 
point of utter stability.

It's not a wonder things are so bad, it's a wonder things work at all.


-- 
George Sexton
MH Software, Inc.
Voice: +1 303 438 9585
URL:   http://www.mhsoftware.com/