Re: [AM] Why Traceability?
[email protected] Sat, 20 Mar 2004 13:44:14 EST
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.programming.modeling.agile |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
-------------------------------1079808254 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 3/20/2004 8:55:32 AM Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes: People tell me I'm too simplistic and not realistic, but I have observed that the primary need for traceability is to point the finger at someone, often in a court of law. Why, then, do I not need traceability? Thanks for your comments. Unfortunately, you are absolutely right regarding CYA. We've become such a litigious society that there is virtually no escape from potential liability. Of course, if you look at the numbers, software developers as a group have earned a pretty bad reputation for failing to produce maintainable and sustainable systems that do what they're supposed to do, on time, within budget. For my money, this dismal track record has to be one of the considerations driving the move to outsourcing software development. Further, since the situation has failed to improve to any degree for the past 30 years or so, an obvious conclusion is that it can't be done any better than it has been done in the past. I reject this notion: in my experience, good people have been looking for good solutions to this problem since at least the early 1970s, but the turn to "scientific management", in which every activity could be identified, qualified, quantified, measured, monitored and predicted in terms of time and cost drove developers into what became the "standard" development process. It's main "virtue" is that it provides a means of covering the butts of management by providing a mechanism for spreading the blame, in the event of a failure, across a large enough group to minimize the responsibility for the failure to any one individual. So whether it is managment ineptitude, lack of understanding, fear of failure or whatever, no one has seemed to want to look at the facts: It's the Process, Stupid. Until the situation becomes painful enough for the supposed movers and shakers to get serious enough to take a good look at the agile methodologies, we're in for a long haul. Oops, sorry J.B., I got a little carried away there. Thanks again for your comments. Regards, Pete For more information about AM, visit the Agile Modeling Home Page at www.agilemodeling.com --^---------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bUrKDA.bWnbtk.Z2NtYS1h Or send an email to: [email protected] For Topica's complete suite of email marketing solutions visit: http://www.topica.com/?p=TEXFOOTER --^---------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------1079808254 Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <HTML><HEAD> <META charset=US-ASCII http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1400" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff"> <DIV> <DIV>In a message dated 3/20/2004 8:55:32 AM Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT face=Arial>People tell me I'm too simplistic and not realistic, but I have observed <BR>that the primary need for traceability is to point the finger at <BR>someone, often in a court of law. Why, then, do I not need traceability?</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV>Thanks for your comments. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Unfortunately, you are absolutely right regarding CYA. We've become such a litigious society that there is virtually no escape from potential liability. Of course, if you look at the numbers, software developers as a group have earned a pretty bad reputation for failing to produce maintainable and sustainable systems that do what they're supposed to do, on time, within budget. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>For my money, this dismal track record has to be one of the considerations driving the move to outsourcing software development. Further, since the situation has failed to improve to any degree for the past 30 years or so, an obvious conclusion is that it can't be done any better than it has been done in the past. I reject this notion: in my experience, good people have been looking for good solutions to this problem since at least the early 1970s, but the turn to "scientific management", in which every activity could be identified, qualified, quantified, measured, monitored and predicted in terms of time and cost drove developers into what became the "standard" development process. It's main "virtue" is that it provides a means of covering the butts of management by providing a mechanism for spreading the blame, in the event of a failure, across a large enough group to minimize the responsibility for the failure to any one individual. So whether it is managment ineptitude, lack of understanding, fear of failure or whatever, no one has seemed to want to look at the facts: It's the Process, Stupid. Until the situation becomes painful enough for the supposed movers and shakers to get serious enough to take a good look at the agile methodologies, we're in for a long haul. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Oops, sorry J.B., I got a little carried away there. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks again for your comments.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Regards,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Pete</DIV><PRE>For more information about AM, visit the Agile Modeling Home Page at www.agilemodeling.com</PRE> <PRE>--^^--------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: <A HREF="http://topica.com/u/?bUrKDA.bWnbtk.Z2NtYS1h">http://topica.com/u/?bUrKDA.bWnbtk.Z2NtYS1h</A> Or send an email to: [email protected] For Topica's complete suite of email marketing solutions visit: <A HREF="http://www.topica.com/?p=TEXFOOTER">http://www.topica.com/?p=TEXFOOTER</A> --^^---------------------------------------------------------------</PRE> </BODY></HTML> -------------------------------1079808254--