Re: Re: SIP is "just another Six Sigma measure"?

Hi Ron,

> > Unless you are building software that is unique to a particular product,
> > why would lead time to produce the software matter to a software customer?
>
>Huh? I must not understand your question. Doesn't everyone always want what
>they want NOW, not later?

My question is intentionally vague. I want to differentiate current 
production of product from long term policy statements relative to what 
product ought to be built. For example, if a software product is to be 
built as part of a unique process, say the control of a just in time 
assembly line, then a notion of lead time fits into the assembly line's 
scheme as a product which, without the software, is incomplete. The 
software costs become a part of the just in time venture, which is a trade 
off of costs between a large versus small inventory.

There is a different type of software product. Suppose that a double entry 
bookkeeping framework could serve all of many just in time assemble lines. 
That type of product is set into motion as a function of policy more 
typical of building a factory, or of buying machinery. In accounting 
jargon, where the unique application is a function of current costs, the 
universal application is a function long term capital investment. My 
initial argument to Kent is that software ought to be more often in the 
later category.

In any case the two types of application ought to be clearly distinguished. 
I brought this up to Kent originally because my sense is that software 
people are not seeing the importance of this distinction. What is worse, 
and sadly, business people are seeing it less and less as well. My interest 
is in community issues that suffer terribly from the absence of universal 
applications. To put it bluntly, unique software becomes more like an 
implement of war than of service. Locally, culturally, that is hurting.

Dan