Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!sun-barr!olivea!orc!inews!iwarp.intel.com!psueea!pdxgate!eecs!warren
From: warren@eecs.cs.pdx.edu (Warren Harrison)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: some advice to a software engineer
Message-ID: <112@pdxgate.UUCP>
Date: 19 Sep 90 16:46:04 GMT
References: <3213@mindlink.UUCP>
Sender: news@pdxgate.UUCP
Reply-To: warren@eecs.UUCP (Warren Harrison)
Organization: Portland State University, Portland, OR
Lines: 34

In article <3213@mindlink.UUCP> a1157@mindlink.UUCP (Reece Markowsky) writes:
>
>Even if You say to yourself: "Better late than bad", Your neigbour will
>deliver junk in time and win the contract. Nobody will ever find out
>what YOU might have delivered a week later. HE will state that the
>repairs he'll have to make to the product are "necessary" or whatever.
>Look at the stuff around and You see what I mean.
>
>  I feel this is a very SHORT TERM out look on what is important in the design
>of quality software.  If the "neighbour" is the type of developer that is
>willing to deliver "junk" to gain contracts, in the short run he may very well
>win these.  However, when the dues are to be paid  (maintenance, long-term
>reputation etc)... that Junk-Dealer will lose.
>
I'm not saying this is the right thing to do but keep in mind the junk
developer will be around to pay those dues ... the outfit who delivered
late to achieve quality will probably be out of business by then becuase
they don't win the contract, hit the market window, etc. To have a long-
term future, you've gotta' have a short-term future (unless you have an
unlimited source of funds :-).

As I said, I don't claim this is the way things should be, but on the other
hand, I think we could all make more progress if the phrase "as much quality
as we can *afford*" wasn't considered taboo among software engineers. Perhaps
when people start specifying "quality" (whatever that is) as a part of the
contract, the amount that we can *afford* will increase.

Warren


==========================================================================
Warren Harrison                                          warren@cs.pdx.edu
Department of Computer Science                                503/725-3108
Portland State University