Re:

Some of the change is being driven by a recognition that the half-life
of a software system has plummeted over the last several years.  The
vast majority of software development, the custom business application,
used to be about building something that might last ten or more years
with a moderate amount of maintenance.  These days it is often about
addressing an opportunity that might disappear in 6 months.  Many
businesses have made rational decisions that building excellently
engineered software does not Programming is just another craft going
through the painful process of converting to mass production.
 
In many ways, offshore development companies are more attuned to the
needs of their clients than are the people working here in America.  We
want to make good money so we emphasize the quality of the individual;
if you can build high-quality software you can make a good buck and
still deliver better value if value is defined in terms of quality
engineering.  Offshore is more about quantity over quality; build
something simple and fast that works well enough to address today's
needs knowing that you can build a new one tomorrow and still come out
cheaper and faster than your competition.  You can't blame business
people for buying into that.

I'm afraid that the programmer as assembly line worker model is here to
stay and will slowly erode the market for highly skilled and highly paid
artisan programmers.  Agile development may provide a framework for
keeping artisans competitive for at least a few more years but it cannot
stem the tide.  There will always be room for highly paid leaders,
visionaries and designers in the software development process but the
highly paid opportunities will become far less numerous than they are
today.

-----------------------------
Tom Cabanski, President
Objective Advantage, Inc.
http://www.oai.cc



-----Original Message-----
From: Larry O'Brien [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2003 4:47 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [DOTNET-JOBS]


> once the market picks up again, and it
> will, companies like this one will suffer tremendous turnover

Surely that's true, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they will go
out of
business. To me, the overall market seems to be moving towards
inexpensive
incompetence: under-specified, under-bid, and under-delivered projects.
But
the monthly bill is less! I do not think software development
professionals
have proved to business leaders that an understanding of software
development processes and practices translates into less expense in the
long
run. Everyone on this list may know that the lessons of "The Mythical
Man-Month" still hold true, but does the average business leader? Or do
they
think "Yeah, that's just the squawking of people who miss their foosball
tables and in-office massages"? I think that the gap between good
software
development practices and average software development practices is
growing
and I think that for that to change, there must be a movement in the
_business_ world, but if you read the business magazines or the
business-oriented software development magazines, this year's silver
bullets
are outsourcing and cost control.

Just my depressed $.02 cents,
Larry
http://www.ThinkingIn.NET/