Red Squirrel Reflections Dave Hoover explores the psychology of software development

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Wednesday, December 3, 2003

I just finished Rapid Development. Like it's predecessor, Code Complete, it contained a lot of hard-won wisdom that (in my opinion) every software developer should read. It no longer surprises me when Steve's writing overlaps philosophically with XP. Like Steve's wisdom, the XP practices grew out of years of hard-won experience. That said, when I read the following quotes I wasn't surprised, but they did make me smile....

"Refusing to allow changes assumes that your customers know what they want at requirements time. It assumes that you can truly know requirements at the outset, before design and coding begin. On most projects this isn't possible. Part of the software developer's job is to help customers figure out what they want, and customers often can't figure out what they want until after they have working software in their hands. You can use the various incremental development practices to respond to this need." --Rapid Development, p. 336, Steve McConnell

"Today, the most successful products are often those that had the most change implemented the latest in the development cycle." --Rapid Development, p. 337, Steve McConnell

"Software development is a tough, time-consuming business. For 30 years we've been told that the magic that will enable us to slay giant schedules and budgets is just around the corner. For 30 years it hasn't come. I say, enough is enough. There is no magic. There is no point in waiting for it. The more we wait, the more we deprive ourselves of valuable, incrementally better solutions to many of our problems. There aren't any easy solutions, but there are easier solutions, which can provide modest improvements individually and dramatic improvements collectively." --Rapid Development, p. 368, Steve McConnell

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