Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!news.cs.indiana.edu!att!bellcore!duncan From: duncan@ctt.bellcore.com (Scott Duncan) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: What's "Average" in Software? (was Re: bridge building and discipline) Message-ID: <1991May16.152429.27870@bellcore.bellcore.com> Date: 16 May 91 15:24:29 GMT References: <4563.282e83ea@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> <1991May15.223719.10256@auto-trol.com> Sender: usenet@bellcore.bellcore.com (Poster of News) Reply-To: duncan@ctt.bellcore.com (Scott Duncan) Organization: Computer Technology Transfer, Bellcore Lines: 32 In article <1991May15.223719.10256@auto-trol.com> alesha@auto-trol.com (Alec Sharp) writes: > >Why do so many people posting news assume that we are all perfect? >Half the software developers out there are below average. Half the >managers are below average. >Please, let's get away from this elitism in posting and start >addressing the "normal" software development process where many of the >people are below average [...] >Alec Sharp Auto-trol Technology Corporation >(303) 252-2229 12500 North Washington Street, Denver, CO 80241-2404 Alec raises, for me at least, an interesting question. What do we consider to be the "average" in software development? Some posts seem to use "average" as a pejorative term denoting "less than desirable." Hence, "average" managers and programmers are depicted as "bad." I tend to think of groups of people well above "average" or well below, but have a hard time pinning down, for myself, what I consider "average." (I have never worked for a company who thought they didn't try to hire "the best" people. SO whjjere do all the "average" folks end up working? :-)) Taking off from Alec's point, what do people feel the "average" person needs, wants, should expect to have, etc. in a software development environment (the process, tools, whatever)? And what characteristics define "average" in the software field? Speaking only for myself, of course, I am... Scott P. Duncan (duncan@ctt.bellcore.com OR ...!bellcore!ctt!duncan) (Bellcore, 444 Hoes Lane RRC 1H-210, Piscataway, NJ 08854) (908-699-3910 (w) 609-737-2945 (h))