Re: [extremeprogramming] The principle behind How Test-Driven Development Works

Hi Steve,

I think I understand your point and I probably agree with it. But when
you write, "Software development is a people problem, not a technical
problem," I hope you're exaggerating to make a point. If software
development were *not* in any sense a technical problem, and were
*only* a people problem, then you could put a bunch of naked people on
a desert island with no technology, and they could produce software.
Such is the power of the word, "not."

Cheers,
Dave

On 11/19/19, Steve Gordon <[email protected]> wrote:
> Any rigorous argument that does not start from the EXPLICIT axiom that the
> requirements are not known until after there is concrete feedback from
> appropriate stakeholders on working software that implement the current
> best guess at those requirements will lead to the conclusion that some form
> of waterfall is the most efficient way to develop software.
>
> If the premise is that we can know M requirements correctly N days in
> advance of delivering them, batches of size M implemented by enough teams
> to deliver them in M days is the most efficient way to deliver those
> requirements.
>
> This is why, for example, despite totally Agile principles, SAfE devolves
> into an unwieldy, bureaucratic, anti-agile mess due to concepts like the
> COD, WSJF, and ART, all of which assume we know what a sizable batch of
> requirements are before we get feedback on working software that implement
> the current best guess at those requirements.
>
> Software development is a people problem, not a technical problem.  If you
> are explicit about the error-prone nature of human beings, it becomes
> obvious that we need feedback as early and often as possible.  TDD provides
> feedback early and often, especially if we commit only to working with the
> customer on solving their problem rather than to a pre-specified solution
> to that problem.
>
> On Mon, Nov 18, 2019 at 1:26 PM J. B. Rainsberger <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>> The mathematics of the argument don't matter as much as the
>> self-similarity of the argument. When they see Waterfall turn into Lean
>> Startup, it's hard to argue against the value of incorporating feedback.
>>
>> What about the math literally argues for top-down pre-design? I've never
>> seen that argument.
>>
>>
>>
>
> 
>
>

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