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: fac41,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gidfac41,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 11cae8,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid11cae8,public X-Google-Thread: 114809,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid114809,public X-Google-Thread: f43e6,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gidf43e6,public From: dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) Subject: Re: The Impossible Project: not so funny... (Was: what's wrong) Date: 1996/12/20 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 205167964 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> organization: New York University newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.lang.eiffel,comp.lang.ada,comp.lnag.java,comp.object,comp.software-eng Date: 1996-12-20T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Tim says "Okay, I'm being silly, but there is nothing a good or even an excellent developer can do with total uncertainty and ambiguity, especially when the customer is hostile or unapproachable. If requirements are not determined, and the users refuse to settle you are likewise in a position where you probably can't make much success." Not so silly! Probably the only silly thing was imagining ALL these things to happen on one project, but I would be willing to bet that every single one of your imagined horrors is real in some context. The funny thing is that when someone says "gosh, for a 100 million buckaroos I could build anything", they are falling into the trap which we are discussing, namely the assumption that you can buy your way out of disaster, when in practice money is quite often the means by which you end up spending yourself into disaster.