Engineering Thoughts…

05 Feb 04
Deep Thoughts

Everyone’s worked on a group project. In High school at your job, even outside of “work.” When you’re creating something new, or changing something old, a certain set of rare sense rules apply. This is especially true in software, or anything where you’re making a product. I’ve been noticing lately that it applies to more than just tangible goods.

In the software industry things are pretty cut and dry conceptually. You get requirements from a client, you build a specification, it gets approved, you build the software to that specification. That’s conceptually, in reality it doesn’t work like that. You get requirements from a client, you build a specification, the customer changes their mind, you write another specification, it gets approved, you build the software, the customer changes their mind, you stab them. Or something like that.

We call this “scope creep.” It’s a disease all over the software industry, and not just for custom programs. In house, you come up with a good idea, you build the software… and halfway through you think of better ideas, and add them in. You show it to your buddy, he has some good ideas, you build them in, ad infinitum.

Most people realize this and we do what’s called a “Feature Freeze.” You set a point in the software where you absolutely will NOT add a new feature in that version, you just continue testing/debugging until all the features that already exist are perfect. A lot of companies do this well, and it shows with good software. A lot of companies have a history of doing this badly *cough*microsoft*cough* and it shows in buggy software. Thankfully, most major providers have learned this lesson many times and are getting better.

What’s becoming more and more obvious to me, is that this applied to a lot more than software. I’ve seen it in things like.. building a house, ordering a car (gotta have those $500 floor mats as a dealer option,) even having dinner at a restauraut (sure, why not get the appetizer?)

Guess what? That’s the same thing that happened to the US Government. Same idea, different application. I’m not going to use this post to argue which policies and programs are right or wrong, but I think one of the root problems is no one’s been sensible enough to order a “Feature Freeze.” I love the way this country started, the foundations of personal freedom, individualism, etc. I love the initial thought of letting states govern themselves and having a national government for protection. There’s a lot I love about this country… but not in it’s modern incarnation.

I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel right now. I don’t see any candidates for president that can fix the country.. I see some that can harm it, some that might harm it, some that might not… but I don’t really see anything getting fixed. In the meantime I see more and more “features” being added, when the originals are full of bugs and failing. Does anyone else see this.. I think it’s painfully obvious, regardless of what your political/philosophical affiliations are (except maybe nihilist.. in which case, why are you reading my blog?)

Ok.. that’s my rant for the day.. no resolution, I know maybe someone in the comments will point the way