Software is a “strange beast”! The analogy of building a house has been given. I remember a statement from Whil Hentzen, about specifications for software. He was insisting you should have written specifications. He said something to the effect, “you would not build a house without a blue print”! Whil knows a lot about the business of creating software applications and is a good common sense person!

From what I have seen during the past 20 years in my association with software development is this:

1. It began with “hackers” and hobbyists.
2. When degrees were offered software development became “legitimate”.

Now about the first category – people from this group got a lot accomplished from a technical aspect. Some of the people I can think of truly contributed a great deal to what we are doing today. Those with an outstanding sense of business do very well by applying software solutions to business needs. Too many of the people from this group are little more than “hackers”. They can write code but they cannot solve problems in the manner required or in a profitable and professional manner.

Another serious problem is the client who does not know what he/she wants. Good management is required to resolve these issues.

The biggest problem I see is management of software environments. Appreciation of business needs, a true business sense, human and technical skills are imperative if you are to succeed. If you doubt this look at the smoke still settling from the dot COM explosion!

Individuals with college degrees even Ph.D.’s in computer science do not do very well in the software development world. It takes years to train such individuals how to be successful and solve problems that clients have.

All the tools in the world will not help if you do not know how to use them. Data modeling, upper and lower case analysis, etc. are important tools we have had for years. Too many developers do not know how to use them and many developers have no concept of what they are.

Often management is on a shoestring budget and does not embrace Software Quality Assurance (SQA), or the latest approach to software development. About every three to five years the “software model” – that is the methodology of software development changes. It is given different names and the reason for the changes is this discipline is not yet mature. The "best approach" to software development has not been found.

In my opinion a major problem with software development is there are no standard practices, as other disciplines possess. In the engineering world there are acceptable methodologies as to how problems are solved. I compare software development and the true engineering disciplines as if you compare a rock and roll garage band to a symphony orchestra. Software development is just another black hole that is represented by too many incompetent people who have no clue what they are doing. It is a “best guess” in most instances.

If you are a good software developer and work for an entity that does not have a clue about business you should keep your resume updated. You will find a job as you know how to be a success. Going with the flow is important when you have to eat so trying to get the owners or management to suddenly get a brain and understand how to run a successful business is a waste of your time.

Not all houses are built well even in this day and age. There is little software that is built well. In a few thousand years the software industry will have more experience in all this. Now will there even be a software industry in say 40 years? I think things will be very different then given that we are allowed to continue on the present path.

People say I am negative. I counter with, "No, I just tell the truth"! :) No one may agree with me but it does not change my experiences.

Tom



>Howdy everyone:
>
>I ran across this article, read it through and found it to be very interesting. I thought I'd pass it on to everyone here and see what all of you thought.
>
>http://www.chc-3.com/pub/beautifulsoftware.htm
>
>CT