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By bfwebster on Apr 27, 2008 in Books, Development, Main, Management, PMSE, Pitfalls | 0 Comments
[From Pitfalls of Modern Software Engineering by Bruce F. Webster (forthcoming)] Categories: managerial It is a sad truism that upper management typically asks just two questions about a software development effort: “Why isn’t someone coding yet?” (known as the ‘WISCY’ question) and “When will the program ship?” These are not bad questions per se, but [...]
By bfwebster on Apr 26, 2008 in Books, Development, Main, Methodology, PMSE, Pitfalls, Politics, Technology | 0 Comments
[From Pitfalls of Modern Software Engineering by Bruce F. Webster (forthcoming)] Categories: conceptual, political Native tribes in the South Pacific developed “cargo cults” during the middle part of the 20th century. Having observed planes (such as the venerable DC-3) landing on their islands and discharging goods from inside, these tribes created simacrula of the planes [...]
By bfwebster on Apr 18, 2008 in Books, Main, Methodology, PMSE, Pitfalls, Politics, Technology | 0 Comments
[From Pitfalls of Modern Software Engineering by Bruce F. Webster (forthcoming)] CATEGORIES: political Imagine the following scene. Your company’s executive staff gathers for a presentation on a new technology or methodology that will revolutionize information productivity. After a presentation citing the ongoing problems of information management, enterprise computing, and competitive response, you are presented with [...]
By bfwebster on Apr 15, 2008 in Architecture, Books, Main, PMSE, Patterns, Politics, Software engineering | 0 Comments
[From Pitfalls of Modern Software Engineering by Bruce F. Webster (forthcoming)] CATEGORIES: political, architectural, managerial While discussing the challenges of software development with Taligent trainer Tom Affinito back in the mid-1990s, I mentioned — citing Fred Brooks — the need for a chief architect. Tom immediately responded, “Yes, and ultimately architecture is a political act.” [...]
By bfwebster on Apr 4, 2008 in Books, Main, Methodology, PMSE, Politics, Technology | 0 Comments
[From Pitfalls of Modern Software Engineering by Bruce F. Webster (forthcoming)] CATEGORIES: political It’s easy to get excited about a particular technology or methodology (the “TOM”). More often than not, they represent a real advance in software engineering, solving — or at least easing — problems that you face on a regular basis. And we [...]