New subject: Toys?

17 Dec 2001

...

The book by Brooks {The Mythical Man Month)should be mandatory reading for
every software man. It is fun too.
I have very good memories from projects where you could first build a 
useful
small part  of the system. The client could then update his requirements 
and
you could get all the bugs out and when all was stable you would build the
next part of the system. The client has a useful system very early in the
project and because you work together with the client (the user) in an 
early
stage of the project, errors in the specification and the programs never
last long. Cost control is also facilitated. You have a satisfied customer
most of the time during development and very much so in the end. This was
for projects for up to 1.000.000 lines of code.

IMHO, Steve McConnell's "Code Complete" should be required knowledge for all

software engineers.

Prototyping is certainly a valuable tool for developing complex 
applications. However, one must remember that the prototype is a means to 
the end and not the final product. Once the application is defined, you 
should throw away the prototype and build the system from scratch using the 
knowledge gained from the prototype. By doing that, you'll have complete 
requirements, a more efficient design, and happy customers.

In real life, it's pretty tough to convince management that you should start 
all over. The typical reaction is to put the prototype in a box and sell as 
is :-(

SteveRob

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