use Perl

• Arg! (Score:3, Interesting)

  by koschei (147) <useperl@dellah.org> on 2003.06.30 0:34 (#21548) Homepage Journal

  I've got a paper copy of a lot of that. Part of my study a few years ago in a project management unit. The unit that got my vote as wankiest unit. Not just atrocious academic writing, but management writing too.
  
  It's scary stuff.

  --
    ---ict / Spoon

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  • Re:Arg! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gnat (29) on 2003.06.30 1:16 (#21550) Journal

    I had an interesting talk at YAPC with someone who's doing a PhD in software management. He pointed out that software management is trying to do what people management does: obtain consistent quality through well-specified standardized processes. They're trying to get away from relying on brilliant programmers, in other words.

    I pointed out, and he agreed, that it's yet to be shown to actually work. It's one thing to take anybody and have them operate the deep fryer to produce a McNugget indistinguishable from any other, but software is a completely different kettle of fish. Err, chicken. Err, software. I've worked with fuckwits for whom no amount of process would help, because they just don't have the ability. I've worked with geniuses who can see elegant solutions that no process could come up with.

    On a similar note, I'm still quite astonished by the games industry's reliance on last-minute crunches. Every game generally requires a month or more of 18+ hour days from programmers and artists. Every game. You cannot go to the shelves of Best Buy and find a popular computer game that was not created in this fashion.

    And yet every software management book you read says this doesn't work. Programmers burn out. You should never ever design a schedule that includes such a crunch. But the games industry breaks this rule every time, and still survives. How the buggery do they do it?

    Is it the economics? Does the sheer number of shekels from a successful game mean that even a programmer's cut is enough to make up for the torture? Do they not have any employees over 30? I don't know, but it's mighty curious.

    --Nat

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    • Re:Arg! (Score:2)

      by ziggy (25)

      He pointed out that software management is trying to do what people management does: obtain consistent quality through well-specified standardized processes.

      Remember that programming is a craft, so forget what the b-school types tell you about management. Look at how carpenters self-manage.

      In the olden days, when there was a progression from apprentice to journeyman to carpenter to master carpenter, there was no set pace to advancement. There was no expectation that you deserved a higher status sim
      • Re:Arg! (Score:2, Informative)

        by chaoticset (2105)

        In the olden days, when there was a progression from apprentice to journeyman to carpenter to master carpenter...

        Hmm...that sort of thing seems to mirror Advogato's trust metric.

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        You are what you think.
    • Re:Arg! (Score:1)

      by chromatic (983)

      But the games industry breaks this rule every time, and still survives. How the buggery do they do it?

      In one episode of Futurama, Zapp Branigan describes how he defeated a legion of killer androids. All it took was throwing wave after wave of troops at the androids until their internal counters overflowed. The androids shut down.

      I'm starting to wonder if the people who think software engineering will work "if it's just done right" even have counters.
      • Re:Arg! (Score:2)

        by ziggy (25)

        In another episode of Futurama, Zapp Branigan attempts to defeat the alien mothership from Omicron Persei 8 by launching wave after wave of ships in an attempt to clog up the alien "Death Ray".

        Hm. I think I see a pattern here. All problems can be solved if you have an infinite supply of troops to send on suicide missions. :-)
        • Re:Arg! (Score:1)

          by chromatic (983)

          Since it's a formal process, let's give it a formal name. I call it... OUTSOURCING!