When I saw the title I thought this was a review of William Gibson's great book of the same title
So did I but can't agree with the 'great' bit
Agree with others who thought it was awful. I made it to the end because I thought it might get better. But it just got worse and worse. If you are thinking of buying the above book make sure you don't by the novel by mistake!
In a well analyzed and properly planned project, the actual coding stage is little more than data entry.
So I'll tell our programmers their Job title has just changed to 'Data Entry Clerk' that will go down well!
Of course schedules can be estimated, I've been doing it for 10 years - unfortunately I always get it wrong (though usually within acceptable boundaries)! It is an estimate it is going to change as the project progresses ignore this basic fact and you are going to run into big trouble.
The only time you will know the actual cost / duration of a project is when it is finished.
Nice theory - have you ever tried putting into practice on a project? A few questions...
Are your users always able to specify the requirements exactly before they see the system?
Does nothing ever change after the design stage - or it just that you don't allow change?
Do you never encounter problems when coding that were not foreseeable when designing?
To be honest if you take this approach I am surprised you ever get to the coding at all. Yes coding to soon is the cause of a lot of problems but the idea that you can get a complete perfect design before you start developing is just ludicrous.
If the design of the software is to the same standard as the website - annoying popup windows and horrible flashing messages - it is not going to be much use!
Anyway they don't ship to the UK so that counts me out.
I also live - and was born in - the UK so I guess that makes me as British as anyone.
Everyone I have spoken to about what happened last Tuesday has had 2 responses;
1. Absolute horror and disgust at what happened.
Though I would have to say that where I am in central London I there was about 40% observance of the 3 minutes silence - traffic coninued to move including London buses & trains.
2. Apprehension about what the USA will do in response.
There is a general feeling that Military action will only things worse not better. Maybe because we have more experience dealing with terrorism than the USA experience has taught us that military solutions don't work. Sure you can invade Afganistan, you might even take Kabul - though at a cost of many more american lives. But I doubt if you will subdue the mountain areas. The terrorist attacks will go on.
I didn't see the question time progamme so can't comment on it but the BBC is not 'widely held to have a left wing bias' this is a view of those on the political right - there are plenty of left wingers who would say the BBC is right wing.
As for levels of support for action - a poll in The Guardian newspaper this morning shows 66% support for action against the terrorist groups, but only 49% for a war involving NATO.
Code Complete by Steve Mconnell
Software Project Survival Guide by Steve Mconnell
Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll
Close to the Machine by Ellen Ullman
all come close, the last two are also a good read.
One of the Dilbert books - probabaly 'The Dilbert Principle' should be there as well.
A bit more specific but I've just finished '
The Book of JavaScript by Dave Thau
and would strongly recommend this. It assumes no programming knowledge and is a book I would give to anyone who was interested in learning to program.
Slashdot Mirror
When I saw the title I thought this was a review of William Gibson's great book of the same title
So did I but can't agree with the 'great' bit
Agree with others who thought it was awful. I made it to the end because I thought it might get better. But it just got worse and worse. If you are thinking of buying the above book make sure you don't by the novel by mistake!
What size of projects are you talking about - number of developers, no of users LOCS etc.
We used to use screen layouts but switched to prototypes as business users had real problems visualising system flow from static pictures.
In a well analyzed and properly planned project, the actual coding stage is little more than data entry.
So I'll tell our programmers their Job title has just changed to 'Data Entry Clerk' that will go down well!
Of course schedules can be estimated, I've been doing it for 10 years - unfortunately I always get it wrong (though usually within acceptable boundaries)! It is an estimate it is going to change as the project progresses ignore this basic fact and you are going to run into big trouble.
The only time you will know the actual cost / duration of a project is when it is finished.
Nice theory - have you ever tried putting into practice on a project? A few questions...
Are your users always able to specify the requirements exactly before they see the system?
Does nothing ever change after the design stage - or it just that you don't allow change?
Do you never encounter problems when coding that were not foreseeable when designing?
To be honest if you take this approach I am surprised you ever get to the coding at all. Yes coding to soon is the cause of a lot of problems but the idea that you can get a complete perfect design before you start developing is just ludicrous.
If the design of the software is to the same standard as the website - annoying popup windows and horrible flashing messages - it is not going to be much use!
Anyway they don't ship to the UK so that counts me out.
I also live - and was born in - the UK so I guess that makes me as British as anyone.
Everyone I have spoken to about what happened last Tuesday has had 2 responses;
1. Absolute horror and disgust at what happened.
Though I would have to say that where I am in central London I there was about 40% observance of the 3 minutes silence - traffic coninued to move including London buses & trains.
2. Apprehension about what the USA will do in response.
There is a general feeling that Military action will only things worse not better. Maybe because we have more experience dealing with terrorism than the USA experience has taught us that military solutions don't work. Sure you can invade Afganistan, you might even take Kabul - though at a cost of many more american lives. But I doubt if you will subdue the mountain areas. The terrorist attacks will go on.
I didn't see the question time progamme so can't comment on it but the BBC is not 'widely held to have a left wing bias' this is a view of those on the political right - there are plenty of left wingers who would say the BBC is right wing.
As for levels of support for action - a poll in The Guardian newspaper this morning shows 66% support for action against the terrorist groups, but only 49% for a war involving NATO.
Not many of these in the IT world but I think,
Code Complete by Steve Mconnell
Software Project Survival Guide by Steve Mconnell
Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll
Close to the Machine by Ellen Ullman
all come close, the last two are also a good read.
One of the Dilbert books - probabaly 'The Dilbert Principle' should be there as well.
A bit more specific but I've just finished ' The Book of JavaScript by Dave Thau and would strongly recommend this. It assumes no programming knowledge and is a book I would give to anyone who was interested in learning to program.