Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!ogicse!uidaho!groucho.mrc.uidaho.edu!windley From: windley@ted.cs.uidaho.edu (Phillip J. Windley) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: What's "Average" in Software? (was Re: bridge building and discipline) Message-ID: Date: 16 May 91 23:52:52 GMT References: <4563.282e83ea@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> <1991May15.223719.10256@auto-trol.com> <1991May16.152429.27870@bellcore.bellcore.com> Sender: @groucho Organization: University of Idaho CS Dept. Lines: 38 In-Reply-To: duncan@ctt.bellcore.com's message of 16 May 91 15:24:29 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: panther.cs.uidaho.edu In article <1991May16.152429.27870@bellcore.bellcore.com> duncan@ctt.bellcore.com (Scott Duncan) writes: 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? I can't address the question of what is average, but let's face it, there is a range of talent out there and not everybody is on top. This is the real challenge of engineering. Take a look at mary Shaw's article in IEEE Software (November???, 1990). Engineering disciplines codify knowledge so that people of modest talent (in the non-pejorative sense) can do what only virtuoso performers could formerly do. Obviously, most software enterprises entail significant amounts of virtuoso performance. --phil-- -- Phil Windley | windley@cs.uidaho.edu Assistant Professor | windley@cheetah.cs.uidaho.edu Department of Computer Science | University of Idaho | Phone: 208.885.6501 Moscow, ID 83843 | Fax: 208.885.6645