Hackers As Factory Workers?

DevDude writes "A strangely interesting article is running on MSDN, entitled: The Case for Software Factories. It suggests creating 'development environments configured to support the rapid development of a specific type of application.' As a developer thrust into many an unsavory situation, I am constantly stepping in the remnants of some development methodology or other. Will super-specialization of software development teams help the industry to push out better software faster? Or are we hassled enough without being treated as an assembly line?"

Comments

Software is not "just like X"

[monk]

We keep hearing about this or that great revolution in software development based on the realization that software is just like X where X may be a story or a building or a car on an assembly line.

These ideas are usually pure intellectual laziness. Software can easily be demonstrated to be nothing like X. Download a house sometime. I'll leave debunking the rest as an exercise for the reader.

The fact is that software is just like writing software, and mixing metaphors is good for nothing except selling management books.

If you want to develop good software hire a very few excellent coders and fire everyone else. Test the heck out of everything they do and and don't let management start a software project without a clear idea of what they need and how it will pay for itself.

If anyone creates a powerpoint presentation at any point during the development process, shoot them. Shoot them twice.