tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23912478.post7976575628749844307..comments2024-01-03T12:45:39.815+00:00Comments on peripatetic axiom: It's the Screamingkeithbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14314542307822401015noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23912478.post-21942305389706501922010-01-24T18:55:05.344+00:002010-01-24T18:55:05.344+00:00@Steve F
If I have understood your comment correc...@Steve F<br /><br />If I have understood your comment correctly then no, I don't think its the wrong way round. <br /><br />Let's not confuse someone being in a position to shout at the developers of a system with that someone having authority over and caring about the development of that system. And even more so with them being willing to and actually doing anything to help with it.keithbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14314542307822401015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23912478.post-18198677104937944762010-01-24T10:45:00.085+00:002010-01-24T10:45:00.085+00:00Is this the wrong way around? My impression is tha...Is this the wrong way around? My impression is that systems which are directly linked to someone with authority who cares generally work--perhaps not well, but enough. <br /><br />The real problem is where decision-making in enterprise IT is just too far from any responsibility from its consequences. The classic example is underpowered development kit: IT purchasing manages their costs down, but the company as a whole loses value. As we all know this is rife in large enterprises, just consider the respect most development teams hold for most corporate architecture groups. The result has been that every generation, institutions oscillate between centralised solutions and local workarounds. Once it was PCs, now it's teams using Facebook.<br /><br />Even if Tim Bray overstates the case, Web 2.0 (whatever that means) has been an excellent wake-up call to show the possibilities of a new generation of technology. It will also trigger another generation of screaming, as in "Startup X wrote an entire CRM system in a month and sold it for $500M, why are you taking so long!"Steve Freemanhttp://www.m3p.co.uk/blognoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23912478.post-5507750499480250642010-01-22T16:51:09.627+00:002010-01-22T16:51:09.627+00:00I worked in an "Enterprise" software dev...I worked in an "Enterprise" software development (product + services) environment for 7 years and in "web 2.0" for 5 years after that. Having had that experience and reading the post; why would anyone willingly work in enterprise software development? I make a lot more money than I ever did in enterprise related work (and I made *a lot* even there), I work when I want and on what I want. Ofcourse you need profitable ideas, but I appear to only have those. <br /><br />Enterprise development seems largely the domain of people with not very much inspiration and a high tolerance for stress and, indeed, screaming.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23912478.post-57886625390063209252010-01-22T16:38:25.695+00:002010-01-22T16:38:25.695+00:00@Steve,
I have no doubt that the desire for a &qu...@Steve,<br /><br />I have no doubt that the desire for a "bang" is behind many large failures, especially in the public sector.<br /><br />Politicians love to announce grand projects. Civil servants love to manage huge budgets. Neither has a good way of measuring outputs so they measure inputs instead. <br /><br />As a result, telephone directory-like RFP documents go out (and only the largest professional services firms can handle them) and telephone directory-like proposals come back. The only question that government departments can bring themselves to ask of their suppliers demands a kind of answer that greatly increases the chances of failure. There doesn't seem to be a way out of this.keithbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14314542307822401015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23912478.post-66714261418978160422010-01-22T16:33:49.704+00:002010-01-22T16:33:49.704+00:00@Lex, I reproduce here the reply I made to your sa...@Lex, I reproduce here the reply I made to your same comment on reddit:<br /><br />Not at all.<br /><br />I actively encourage my clients who have legacy systems, regulatory regimes and the fear that an ignorant user base is going to scream and yell at you to overcome those problems using agile principles. The word 'agile' is in the name of the business unit I manage. Clients hire me because I'm a consultant specializing in Agile practices.<br />It seems also to me that iterative development is the key to avoiding large scale failures, and operating safely with legacy systems.<br />What I don't recommend is that folks working in an economic, regulatory and what-all-have-you context wildly different from that of a web 2.0 startup should expect that web 2.0 startup practices will work just fine for them.<br /><br />Sorry if that wasn't clear.keithbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14314542307822401015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23912478.post-39584057093950542982010-01-22T15:48:25.724+00:002010-01-22T15:48:25.724+00:00A perhaps simpler way of putting Lex Pattison'...A perhaps simpler way of putting Lex Pattison's comment would be this:<br /><br />Consider if the NHS NPfIT system was rolled out first to a small userbase. Perhaps one hospital and a few surrounding GPs. It could prove itself in the field with incremental updates before being rolled out further.<br /><br />Now consider that instead of commissioning software, they commissioned protocols for secure transmission of patient records and certification schemes for software implementing them (this has to be done anyway) and allowed every GP in the country to choose their own software supplier.<br /><br />The problem for these approaches is they launch with a whimper, not a bang. There's no grand opening, no point at which someone can stand up and say "I have done it, promote me." This to me seems to be the root cause of the problemStevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04808704969162066133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23912478.post-35971458372056917862010-01-22T15:15:52.264+00:002010-01-22T15:15:52.264+00:00So - your defense against operating using 'ag...So - your defense against operating using 'agile' principles and iterative development is that complexity and unnecessary redundancy is necessitated by legacy systems, regulatory regimes and the fear that an ignorant user base is going to scream and yell at you. Seems to me iterative development is the key to avoiding large scale failures, and operating safely with legacy systems.... iterate slowly away from their implementation... iterate slowly within the regulatory mechanisms. Your argument is a massive Fail Wail - pure rationalization.Lex Pattisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06655185370363942282noreply@blogger.com