From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 109fba,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: fac41,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gidfac41,public X-Google-Thread: f43e6,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gidf43e6,public X-Google-Thread: 11cae8,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid11cae8,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 114809,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid114809,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public From: Guy Rixon Subject: Re: The Impossible Project: not so funny... (Was: what's wrong) Date: 1996/12/22 Message-ID: <32BD35B2.25A@ast.cam.ac.uk>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 205389892 references: <32A5A86A.1AF1@shef.ac.uk> <32A82932.4A73@mci.com> <1996Dec7.151850.877@prim.demon.co.uk> <32AA978F.7D64@deep.net> <58v04c$r9l@bagan.srce.hr> <32BACA2C.A4C@dave-world.net> content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii organization: Royal Greenwich Observatory mime-version: 1.0 newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.lang.eiffel,comp.lang.ada,comp.lnag.java,comp.object,comp.software-eng x-mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (X11; I; SunOS 5.5 sun4m) Date: 1996-12-22T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Tim Ottinger wrote: > > Kazimir Majorinc wrote: > ...I added up all of the reasons I've seen things fall apart, and put them > into a single nightmare scenario, to show how you can fail even with > great, steaming wads of cash. [Details of nightmare deleted] Here's another one to worry about: There is no clear customer for your product. The nominal customer is a collaboration of independent organizations. After a little digging, you find that funding, functional requirements, technical contraints, and acceptence testing are being handled by different groups who make conflicting demands because they are unaware of each other. You introduce them and they declare inter-office war on each other: nothing is resolved. About the time that you have something to demonstrate, the war of words goes politically nuclear and one or more of the `customers' gets wiped out. You are left with no sponsors for the many dubious decisions you were forced to make to reconcile the conflicting requirements. -- Guy Rixon, gtr@ast.cam.ac.uk Software Engineering Group, Tel: +44-1223-374000 Royal Greenwich Observatory Fax: +44-1223-374700