Re: Ada in command / control systems

["Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com>]

"Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> wrote in message 
news:q5m7bc$1mf2$1@gioia.aioe.org...
> On 2019-03-05 10:51, Maciej Sobczak wrote:
>>>> Managers cannot see what programmers do.
>>>
>>> Need they to? I think the established view is that [mis]management is a
>>> discipline of its own. A manager can manage a diary farm company or a
>>> software house just same...
>>
>> I think that the two statements above explain a lot. If managers have no 
>> idea what we do and we have no idea what they do, how can we expect 
>> software engineering to be a mature discipline? :-D
>
> It is not about discipline, it is about the maximum size of a 
> project/company/organization when things stop working no matter what.

This is an interesting point. When an organization gets big enough to need 
managers, my contention is that it is already too big. For most human 
endevours, there is a size of group beyond which very little progress will 
occur regardless of numbers. Because once you start adding layers of 
management, interactions become fossilized and incremental progress goes 
down. Brooks law applies to pretty much everything!

Clearly there are some projects that need to be large (infrastructure like 
roads and utilities come to mind), but the more that can be minimized the 
better.

Otherwise, smaller is almost always better. Small organizations also have 
the advantage that they can be allowed to fail, so the true power of 
capitalism actually can bear on them. People aren't trapped in terrible jobs 
because there are plenty of other similar places that they could work. And 
so on.

And in such cases, fancy "engineering" isn't necessary. Simply use Ada to 
get your stuff right in the first place; no need to impress managers or 
other people that aren't adding anything to society.

                          Randy.