My point is that using information about "proces" can be useful but it is
never a panacea but too many times folks like to skip over aspects that
they should think about, even if they'd like to ignore it. THOUGHT should
never be ignored but is often provoked by reminders. No need to belabor
that further.
On Wed, 5 Oct 2005, Greg Woodhouse wrote:
"Process" isn't the problem, so much as the degree to which process
consumes so much of our time and energy. I fear that we tend to think
that the right process will somehow prove a panacea -- or we become so
focused on process that tend to neglect other aspects, well, of the
activity of software development.
--- "A. Forrey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
My take on this is that The "Process" is a guide not a catechism and
the
pre-defined set of steps, documents and stages is a reminder of what
may
need to be considered and developed to facilitate the "Work". In the
M/VistA environment this may be different than that in other work
settings. The point has to be that these aspects support effective
work.
On Wed, 5 Oct 2005, Larry Andreassen wrote:
Comparing small and large team projects I've been involved with...
Small teams... "Do the work..."
Large teams... "Do the process..."
By process I mean a pre-defined set of steps, documents and stages.
And,
often these stages do not fit naturally with the work.
On 10/5/05, Kevin Toppenberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From an outsider, it seems that more manpower WOULD be better,
within
reason.
It seems to me that creating software should be somewhat similar
to
any other engineering project. My hospital has been adding a new
wing for the last year or so, and it certainly wouldn't have gone
up
faster if there had been LESS people working on it. There has to
be
some optimal number of people to work on each aspect of
element/stage
the project, and then there is the interdependence of stages
(can't
start step 5 until step 4 is done etc.)
I am also interested in following the computer gaming industry
(which
by the way earns more each year than the movie industry, for the
last
two years). Consider a typical 3D game. It requires the following
basic elements:
- base art creation
- 3-D model creators
- 3-D model animators
- game shell to run levels
- game level creators
- music composition
- sound effects
- overall story creator
- management team
- database functionality (if MMOG)
It seems to me that within each aspect of the project, you are
going
to have more productivity with more manpower--albeit with
deminishing
returns at some point. e.g. 6 modelers will get the game's
resources
created faster than 2 would, but 20 modelers might not be able to
work
at 100% effeciency. So I can imagine creating a graph with
X=number
of workers and Y being the total productivity. The curve would
start
out with a straight 1:1 increase, but then flatten out at extra
workers help less and less.
So the issue would be as to how much the project can be divided
into
truly unique aspects. There was a comment before that division of
the
project causes the individual parts to loose site of the whole,
and to
get demoralized etc. Perhaps that would be because the parts were
not
as unique as in my example above. In my example, I can't image
that
one person could be the musician for a game, and also a database
programmer. But if you had two teams both working on databse
issues,
there could be problems.
Anyway, enough writing about something that is completely outside
my
area of expertice! I have woken up way to early this morning (4:00
am), and I think I'm rambling a bit.... :-)
Kevin
On 10/4/05, Gregory Woodhouse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
Fred Brooks was a hopeless optimist.
===
Gregory Woodhouse
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"One must shy away from questionable undertakings, even when they
have a
high sounding name."
--Albert Einstein
On Oct 4, 2005, at 5:29 PM, Ben Mehling wrote:
On 10/4/05, Nancy Anthracite <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > wrote:
I have been trying to recall, but I think it is something like
doubling
the
number of programmers quadruples the time it takes to complete
the
project ...or something like that.
On Oct 3, 2005, at 10:51 PM, Nancy Anthracite wrote:
I have I heard this before as an aphorism with a lot fewer word
but
exactly
the same meaning. As I recall, I heard Rick Marshall pass it on
as a quote
from someone else about what happens when you add more
programmers
to a
project.
I'm going to guess you're thinking of the 'classic' book Mythical
Man-Month?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month
- Ben
-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.Net email is sponsored by:
Power Architecture Resource Center: Free content, downloads,
discussions,
and more. http://solutions.newsforge.com/ibmarch.tmpl
_______________________________________________
Hardhats-members mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.Net email is sponsored by:
Power Architecture Resource Center: Free content, downloads,
discussions,
and more. http://solutions.newsforge.com/ibmarch.tmpl
_______________________________________________
Hardhats-members mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
===
Gregory Woodhouse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"Without the requirement of mathematical aesthetics a great many discoveries would
not have been made."
-- Albert Einstein
-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.Net email is sponsored by:
Power Architecture Resource Center: Free content, downloads, discussions,
and more. http://solutions.newsforge.com/ibmarch.tmpl
_______________________________________________
Hardhats-members mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.Net email is sponsored by:
Power Architecture Resource Center: Free content, downloads, discussions,
and more. http://solutions.newsforge.com/ibmarch.tmpl
_______________________________________________
Hardhats-members mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
