Re:Things I Believe About Software Engineering
by iainmerrick on Monday February 03, 2020 @06:47AM
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Change in a software project definitely isn’t free but I do think it’s fair to say it’s easier than changing a bridge design halfway through.
Maybe there’s not as big a difference as people think, though?
It occurs to me that is actually possible to change the design of a bridge late in the day. The extra dampers to fix resonance problems on London’s Millennium Bridge are a nice example.
Re:Things I Believe About Software Engineering
by peteradio on Monday February 03, 2020 @07:40AM
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I think there is a bit of respect for the bridge building process not to change it half way through on a whim.
Re:Things I Believe About Software Engineering
by iainmerrick on Monday February 03, 2020 @12:21PM
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Or maybe bridge engineers are better at pushing back on change requests.
(I don’t actually know which it is; maybe it’s both)
In my experience, this could not be further from the truth. There is simply no awareness that change remains expensive it's just that now the process allows it without any fanfare whereas before a change was a big deal.
Not saying that change requests are the way to go but certainly an understanding that change is not free would go a long way