Explaining Complexity in Software Development?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Thursday May 11, 2006 @11:35AM from the just-don't-have-the-right-words dept.

BMazurek asks: "I'm stumped by how to explain software development complexity (not theoretical big-O notation, that's easy) to non-developers. When it comes to people who aren't in the code, my explanations fall flat. It's not that the people I'm talking to are stupid, they're quite honestly people at the top of their respective (non-tech) fields. How do -you- explain software development complexity to non-developers? What analogies do you use?" "I often try the famous Fred Brooks, Jr. quote (seldom to much success):

'Software entities are more complex for their size than perhaps any other human construct because no two parts are alike (at least above the statement level). If they are, we make the two similar parts into a subroutine--open or closed. In this respect, software systems differ profoundly from computers, buildings, or automobiles, where repeated elements abound.'

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I've walked many sidewalks in many cities... by hackwrench · 2006-05-12 08:02 · Score: 0, Troll

Very rarely am I passed. I suppose when I lived in Muncie two years ago, with Ball State University, if I waited for classes to let out, I would have run into someone, but everyone else would have been busy getting to their next class for the most part.