Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!ists!yunexus!davecb From: davecb@yunexus.YorkU.CA (David Collier-Brown) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: some advice to a software engineer Message-ID: <15271@yunexus.YorkU.CA> Date: 18 Sep 90 22:39:49 GMT References: Distribution: comp Organization: York U. Computing Services Lines: 30 In kpc00@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (kpc) writes: | Engineering is a creative act. By that I mean that you have the power | to determine the quality of the products that you design. You also | have the power to decide what should be designed and what should not | be designed. Both are creative undertakings, each in its way. josef@nixpbe.UUCP (Moellers) writes: | This is a very idealistic assumption. From my experience in the | commercial world, You are told what to design. Usually the quality of | the products is dependent on the time frame You have. This may be true, but its a bit off the point. I am often given requirements, which amounts to telling me what to design. I am given time and resource limits, which tell me how much I can afford to do. Yet I still decide what should and should not be designed, what should and should not be done. I can't not decide, unless my job description is changed to ``coder''. On another point, I elect to hold quality constant and vary deliverables. Others do it the other way, and **may** thrive. Yet time wounds all heels: the quick-and-dirty code may not hurt it's author this year, but he'd better change jobs a lot. --dave (if you hold time, staffing levels and size constant, the only variable will be a binary one: success/failure) c-b -- David Collier-Brown, | davecb@Nexus.YorkU.CA, ...!yunexus!davecb or 72 Abitibi Ave., | {toronto area...}lethe!dave or just Willowdale, Ontario, | postmaster@{nexus.}yorku.ca CANADA. 416-223-8968 | work phone (416) 736-5257 x 22075