>
>The book by Brooks {The Mythical Man Month)should be mandatory reading for
>every software man. It is fun too.
>I have very good memories from projects where you could first build a
>useful
>small part of the system. The client could then update his requirements
>and
>you could get all the bugs out and when all was stable you would build the
>next part of the system. The client has a useful system very early in the
>project and because you work together with the client (the user) in an
>early
>stage of the project, errors in the specification and the programs never
>last long. Cost control is also facilitated. You have a satisfied customer
>most of the time during development and very much so in the end. This was
>for projects for up to 1.000.000 lines of code.
>
IMHO, Steve McConnell's "Code Complete" should be required knowledge for all
software engineers.
Prototyping is certainly a valuable tool for developing complex
applications. However, one must remember that the prototype is a means to
the end and not the final product. Once the application is defined, you
should throw away the prototype and build the system from scratch using the
knowledge gained from the prototype. By doing that, you'll have complete
requirements, a more efficient design, and happy customers.
In real life, it's pretty tough to convince management that you should start
all over. The typical reaction is to put the prototype in a box and sell as
is :-(
SteveRob
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Received on Mon Dec 17 2001 - 19:07:46 GMT