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From: rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Specification Tools and Code Testing
Summary: old timers? managers?
Message-ID: <1990Aug29.233842.17466@ico.isc.com>
Date: 29 Aug 90 23:38:42 GMT
References: <8412@fy.sei.cmu.edu>
Organization: Interactive Systems Corporation, Boulder, CO
Lines: 24

bwb@sei.cmu.edu (Bruce Benson) writes:

>...I just finished being part of a team that did a software "self assessment"
> on an organization.  It was interesting to note the differences between
> problem perception in the "old timers" (about 10 years on the job) and
> newer folks (1-3 years)...

10 years isn't an "old timer"!  That is, not unless you mean 10 years with
the particular group or company, in which case it's quite a while--and easy
to see how they'd become hide-bound, not by their experience _per_se_ but
by being in one place too long.  Clarification?

> What stood out was the "old-timers" (usually middle managers) seemed so
> comfortable with the problems (like an old buddy)...

Hold on, here...it's really not reasonable to compare the attitudes of
middle managers--who are now twice-removed from doing software--with the
folks who are actually doing it.  The problems easily remain familiar when
you've been through them a lot, yet they're non-threatening when you get a
little distance from the immediacy of them.  Did you have any 10-year vets
in non-management positions?
-- 
Dick Dunn     rcd@ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd       Boulder, CO   (303)449-2870
   ...I'm not cynical - just experienced.