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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JB replies: Why Another Programming Language?

Date Tags xml / xslt

The most common argument for introducing YAPL goes like this:

"There are way too many programming languages out there. And they are each flawed in some way (small and odd, or large and incomprehensible). So I, in my wisdom and will create YAPL, which will displace all these other, inferior …

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