Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!linus!gatech!bloom-beacon!athena.mit.edu!tada
From: tada@athena.mit.edu (Michael Zehr)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: A Cynic's Guide, part 1
Message-ID: <3584@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Date: 9 Mar 88 03:23:44 GMT
References: <2541@Shasta.STANFORD.EDU>
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: tada@athena.mit.edu (Michael Zehr)
Distribution: na
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lines: 28

In article <2541@Shasta.STANFORD.EDU> neff@Shasta.UUCP (Randall Neff) writes:
>			Hardware vs Software
> Why can hardware engineers do 
> their job so well and software engineers talk about the (huge) percentage 
> lifecycle cost in the maintenance phase?   
> [ lots of other stuff... ]

Well, I read an article recently that gave some facts that could
explain some of the discrepancy.  I don't remember the exact numbers,
so I'll paraphrase:

Over the last blah years, the demand for hardware has grown at a
[blah] annual rate.  Over the same period of time, the demand for
software has grown at a [5 times as much] annual rate.

In other words, the software people are under more pressure to get
their product out fast.  [yeah, i know -- all the hardware people
who've ever had a deadline are going to flame me...]

Another possible reason is that a lot more custom software is produced
than custom hardware.

just a few random thoughts ...


-------
michael j zehr
"My opinions are my own ... as is my spelling."