I worked on some mission-critical/life-critical stuff about 2 years ago. It was aircraft related, and since it was basically carrying the data which made the plane fly it was critical by any definition. The processes we followed was absolutely document driven. User specs were examined, questions asked and the user asked to add definition and clarification for several iterations of the document. Then the software requirements etcetcetc were followed, ech document with quite a bit of iteration. Eventually we found that typically documentation and design would take 50% of the project. Testing would take about 30 to 35%, and the actual implementation hardly took any time at all. Now in the commercial world, I find that the process is VASTLY different. Implementation has started shortly after user specs have hit the desk, before design or documentation has begun. As a result, the system we currently have is very patchy in places. Its mission is a lot less critical, but the bugs slow us down tremendously. The bugs are due to the process. The process is requirements driven, not documentation driven. But it seems that the current system I'm working on has about the same complexity as that I used to work on. Only even though we are supposed to be pushing it all out the door faster, the bugs are slowing us to the point where we have approximately the same rate of progress as the mission-critical project!! Lesson: If you do it by the documentation, you will push it out faster and cleaner (and more bugfree!!!)
In ESR's book "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" he mentions that the psychology of the Hacker Culture could revolve around the gaining of reputation by giving "gifts" of code to the community. What is your view of the motivations for giving away source code today?
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I worked on some mission-critical/life-critical stuff about 2 years ago. It was aircraft related, and since it was basically carrying the data which made the plane fly it was critical by any definition. The processes we followed was absolutely document driven. User specs were examined, questions asked and the user asked to add definition and clarification for several iterations of the document. Then the software requirements etcetcetc were followed, ech document with quite a bit of iteration. Eventually we found that typically documentation and design would take 50% of the project. Testing would take about 30 to 35%, and the actual implementation hardly took any time at all. Now in the commercial world, I find that the process is VASTLY different. Implementation has started shortly after user specs have hit the desk, before design or documentation has begun. As a result, the system we currently have is very patchy in places. Its mission is a lot less critical, but the bugs slow us down tremendously. The bugs are due to the process. The process is requirements driven, not documentation driven. But it seems that the current system I'm working on has about the same complexity as that I used to work on. Only even though we are supposed to be pushing it all out the door faster, the bugs are slowing us to the point where we have approximately the same rate of progress as the mission-critical project!! Lesson: If you do it by the documentation, you will push it out faster and cleaner (and more bugfree!!!)
In ESR's book "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" he mentions that the psychology of the Hacker Culture could revolve around the gaining of reputation by giving "gifts" of code to the community. What is your view of the motivations for giving away source code today?