Re: What ONE thing should the CIO understand about managing/motivating developers?

On Mar 27, 3:51 pm, "Malcolm McLean" <regniz...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"estherschindler" <est...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

I realize you probably have more than one thing on your list. But by
insisting that you give me just ONE answer, I can prioritize the key
elements.

Software is malleable. Often we can add buttons or fucntions, or change the
way something works, at quite a late stage of development. For instnace if
users find the mouse too awkward to draw lines with, we can probably convert
those lines to curves with editable nodes, without too many changes to the
rest of the program.

However it is not infinitely malleable. Projects tend to fail when someone
in authority, who is not directly involved in code, has the power to insist
on late changes to the specification. The problem is that the change can
usually be accommodated, but at cost of degrading the structure of the rest
of the code. So bugs appear elsewhere, and eventually the project fails.
I've seen this countless times with games - the companies I worked for are
now bankrupt.

--
Free games and programming goodies.http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~bgy1mm

yes.

As a friend tends to say it: We can do anything in software. The
impossible just takes longer.
Of course this is a sarcastic remark intended to convey the danger of
complete flexibility.
Ed
.

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