[From Pitfalls of Modern Software Engineering by Bruce F. Webster (forthcoming)] CATEGORIES: conceptual OK, the pitfall title itself may be something of a giveaway, but stop and think: how often does a new technology or methodology (”the TOM”) emerge, only to have IT departments (or their executive overseers) seek to adopt the TOM for time-, […]
[From Pitfalls of Modern Software Engineering by Bruce F. Webster (forthcoming)] CATEGORIES: organizational, conceptual The software development process–creating software to solve a particular problem–is long and complex and has many activities and stages. The exact list will vary depending on what book or article you read but can generally be said to include the following: […]
[From Pitfalls of Modern Software Engineering by Bruce F. Webster (forthcoming)] CATEGORIES: organizational, conceptual Suppose you were managing a boxer and wanted him to compete in professional karate tournaments. Suppose you gave him some books on karate to study, showed him a film or two, maybe let him attend a three- or four-day karate training […]
[From Pitfalls of Modern Software Engineering by Bruce F. Webster (forthcoming)] CATEGORIES: organizational, conceptual, political Management is always looking for the proverbial silver bullet, despite Fred Brooks’ warning to the contrary. Good reasons may exist to adopt a particular technology — such as object-oriented development — and/or a particular methodology — such as RUP, Agile, […]
Back in the mid-1990s, I wrote and published Pitfalls of Object-Oriented Development (M&T Books, 1995). The book captured lessons learned from five years of full-time commercial software development using object-oriented technology, as well as cautions and observations gleaned from books and articles on the subject. Shortly after the book went into publication, I started plans […]
Classic patterns in disputed IT project: Hertz v. Accenture
Just ran across this article at the always-irreverent-but-usually-spot-on Register, an IT news site out of England. The standard patterns of a troubled IT project are so evident in this one report that I may well use it as a case study for my CS 428 (“Real-world software engineering”) class this fall. Here are some of […]
Neverending Story pattern: School District ERP system late, over-budget
A story a few days ago caught my eye, not because it was unusual, but because it follows so familiar a pattern. Here are a few excerpts from the article: MANATEE — Late nights, hefty contracts and humming computers are a norm in the district’s School Support Center, where employees are working to fix a […]
Minnesota DMV software project: Faulty Towers/Neverending Story patterns
In my 2000 white paper, “Patterns in IT Litigation: System Failure (1976-2000)” [PDF], which I researched and wrote while at PricewaterhouseCoopers, I describe six broad fact patterns to classify the types of software system implementation failure. One of those patterns I named “Faulty Towers”: The client buys the system from [or has the system developed […]
![The Meltdown/Spectre CPU bugs: a dramatic global case of the “Unintended Consequences” pattern [UPDATED 4/4/18]](http://bfwa.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/intel-cpu-150x150.jpg "The Meltdown/Spectre CPU bugs: a dramatic global case of the “Unintended Consequences” pattern [UPDATED 4/4/18]")
Back in 2000, PricewaterhouseCooper published my research white paper, “Patterns in IT Litigation: Systems Failure (1976-2000)” (PDF). This paper reflected research I and my staff had done over several months on roughly 120 two- or three-party lawsuits involving information technology. I found that almost all of these lawsuits fell into one or two of six […]