Date: Fri, 08 Apr 2005 09:14:50 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: "Barry L. Newton" <bnewton at ashcomp.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: The joys of working in a bookstore
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

Most Remarkably, N Lynch wrote:
>Do you really wait for the design to be fully
>specified?  The last place I worked, the programmers
>usually were programming while we were discussing the
>design.  If they coincided when I got to test it, that
>made my job a little easier.   But that didn't happen
>too often.  The software was also rarely on time.

The major contributor to late software is doing work over several times
because the design was never settled in the first place.  Sometimes this
happens because the design was flawed, and the flaw only showed up in
testing.  Sometimes it's just the customer changing his mind.  This happens
less often if he's charged for it and the deadline extended each time.

Barry