SoylentNews

Cowboy Engineers in the Software Industry

posted by janrinok on Sunday March 02 2014, @11:59PM   
from the was-it-much-harder-in-my-day? dept.

shabadoo writes:

"Will software engineering always be a cowboy's game? Or is it just a case of when you're a passionate expert the pimples stand out more clearly. This guy has clearly had enough. His vents are amusing, but also raise some good points about the state of the industry."

• Different types for different projects (Score: 5, Insightful) by mth on Monday March 03 2014, @12:54AM

  by mth (2848) on Monday March 03 2014, @12:54AM (#9843) Homepage

  If you're building a proof of concept, a demo or a new kind of product to test whether a market exists for it, you would want to get something that works most of the time out there as soon as possible. The feedback you receive will then tell you whether you're on the right track and should build this product, build a slightly different product or abandon the idea altogether. For this kind of development, cowboys are useful.

  If you're building a system that will be used for many years or will be handling critical functions, you need developers who are more careful, who add checks in every layer, who write tests, do code reviews, use static code checkers etc.

  A problem is that when a concept/demo/alpha is successful, management wants it in production as soon as possible and might not be willing to spend the time required to go from prototype code to production code. You could avoid this by writing prototypes using the same process you use for production code, but then you'd have to throw away a lot more work if the concept turns out to be not what the user/market wants or you have overlooked requirements that invalidate the design.

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+4
  Insightful=3, Interesting=1, Total=4
  Extra 'Insightful' Modifier		0
  Total Score:		5