Essay 5 - Using the Requirements

Requirements have a number of uses.

  1. They document progress. This management value is sometimes the only value placed on requirements. This happens when requirements are really just high-level design and don't describe the problem adequately.
  2. They test candidate architectures. This is done well when there is a back and forth …
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Essay 4 - Creeping Scope

Walker Royce notes that the early parts of a project involve discovery; as a consequence the scope is subject to change. He calls the early phases inception and elaboration. Inception identifies the need for a project, and stakes out an initial context and problem. Elaboration adds details, including the constraining …

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7 kinds of complexity - 7 deadly sins?

Here's a possible match-up between the Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Species of Complexity.

  • lust for someone we cannot have - "When I Grow Up"
  • gluttony or over-indulgence - "How Hard Can It Be?"
  • avarice (covetousness, greed) for things we do not need - "Quality vs. Quantity of Ideas"
  • sloth (laziness, idleness) wasting …
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Essay 3 - Assuming a Solution

A great deal of the requirements analysis activity is identifying the entire problem. Many software people are eager to present a solution to some of the problem.

Perhaps I can't locate my keys. Having a "Clapper" on my key ring so that my keys chirp may be a solution. However …

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Essay 2 - A Solution Is A Story

Software, and a software architecture, is a solution to a problem. Without a specific problem, software is a pointless exercise: statements in a formal language with no thesis or purpose. An abstract piece of software akin to the statement: "Time flies like an arrow." It parses (two different ways!) but …

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Essay 1 - All Software Problems are Large or Complex

All software problems are large or complex as a direct result of the tremendous reuse potential of software. Consider two alternatives:

  • The problem is relatively well understood. Solution: locate an open source or commercial solution and use or adapt that solution.
  • The problem is not well understood. Solution: study enough …
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Essay 20 - Moving the Topsoil

The topsoil is in the front yard, the garden is in the back yard.

The users form up a bucket brigade to use several pails and buckets to move the soil. It's backbreaking and slow, so they go to IT for a solution.

"We've measured the work activity very carefully …

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No more Mindspring

Years and years ago I started using Delphi internet services. They had a complicated dialup arrangement through Sprintnet and Tymenet to a farm of VAX servers in the Boston area, part of Northeast Education and Research (NEAR) net. This was Delphi internet, character-mode, 9600 baud. I used Mac classic and …

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