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New The question was, "Is it possible?"
The thing I like about the article is that it questions the assumption that just about everyone seems to make: that IT in general, and software development in particular, is done the way it is because it's the only way it can be done. This article shows that, given the proper incentives, it can be done as "flawlessly" as other "critical" functions.

With very rare exceptions, multi-million dollar projects should not be entrusted to "kids" fresh out of school, as many seem to be. When managment is ready to treat IT as a critical function, maybe they will put the money into it.

None of this changes your situation, just a rant. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's tired of being told it has to be right, and there's no more time or money in the budget.
We have to fight the terrorists as if there were no rules and preserve our open society as if there were no terrorists. -- [link|http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/05/opinion/BIO-FRIEDMAN.html|Thomas Friedman]
New Right on, Drew!
"There's not enough time to do it right the first time". "But, there's always time to do it over again". And, again, and again,...
Alex

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. -- Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
New I used to think I was REALLY good
This meant I really cared about getting
the design and code right, and bugs were
a personal failure.

I accepted that I would have a rare one, and
that it would be fixed immediately.

This was in about 30,000 lines of pointer heavy
'C' and Oracle Pro-C code. Bugs meant core dumps.
It was rare that a user would experience it, since
the OS would kill my program way before then.

This was when I was responsible for the design
and coding of an in-house editorial system that
had 30 active editorial users, and produced monthly
data dumps that were then published on Compuserve,
CD-ROM, and printed book.

I had 1 bad output in 3 years, and was fixed in
24 hours. My users never lost one byte of data,
even in the event of hardware failure.

Now I do junk mail. Dead trees. Marketing databases.
Fuzzy yucky data, where there is a percentage of known
bad data, it as long as it is under the magical
max, it is ok.

ok.

ok.

ewwwwww.

I gotta go wash my hands.

But:

I've got to hit the print date.

I've got hundreds of people at various companies
sitting and idling if I miss the print date.

So as long as it is good enough, it really is "good enough".
New Your exception IMO proves the rule
Someone looks at the cost to produce cleaner data, and where this line croses the cost of delaying the mailing. At that point, it's "good enough." I strongly suspect most decisions don't have nearly this clear a metric by which to define "good enough," yet the call is made anyway.

Beyond that, my comments were more directed to the process than the actual decision. If, as I said, someone is willing to trust a project to a wet, pink newbie they have just proven through action that they don't really think it's that important. You are obviously not a newbie (though I won't comment on your pinkness or wetness). They are willing to pay for you. When they give your job to a PFY to save money, that's when "good enough" is a fool's bargain.
We have to fight the terrorists as if there were no rules and preserve our open society as if there were no terrorists. -- [link|http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/05/opinion/BIO-FRIEDMAN.html|Thomas Friedman]
     Thus the great PHB spake: - (broomberg) - (17)
         Definitely not C++ - (tonytib)
         For one thing COBOL is in some sense a subset of PL/1. - (a6l6e6x) - (12)
             Interesting translater - (broomberg) - (11)
                 Can some of that knowledge be codified? - (tonytib) - (9)
                     Re: Can some of that knowledge be codified? - (a6l6e6x) - (8)
                         Re: Can some of that knowledge be codified? - (wharris2)
                         Interesting article for you - (drewk) - (6)
                             No way - (broomberg) - (4)
                                 The question was, "Is it possible?" - (drewk) - (3)
                                     Right on, Drew! - (a6l6e6x)
                                     I used to think I was REALLY good - (broomberg) - (1)
                                         Your exception IMO proves the rule - (drewk)
                             Interesting article indeed. Thanks! - (a6l6e6x)
                 Re: PL/1 or PL/I? It is PL/I. - (a6l6e6x)
         Domino/Db2 ass end webforms front end - (boxley)
         DB/2 on the MF partition, apps on the Linux partition? - (CRConrad) - (1)
             The lobsters are coming! - (pwhysall)

Remember... save the wax!
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