Software Is Not Hard
@ 2008-09-04 18:55:46
Filed under: Code Philosophy Tech
That is right, I just said that. I was thinking about this today as I was writing some enhancements to an application. It's not hard ... it is complex. Complexity can come from multiple things:
1. Bad or overcomplicated design
2. Picking the wrong tool for the job
3. Lack of experience with the size of a project
If there was a one question survey over software being complex or not I believe the majority of people would agree. So why to people say that software is hard? I think it ends up being related to the people who are judging the end result. As I was writing the requested enhancements today I had a set of requirements and knew what I believed the outcome should be. On top of that I knew the requester was not picky about the details .... just wanted functionality X added. It seems simple, even though the complexity of the change (or the complexity of the software itself) may not be. What if the requester was picky? What if he didn't just want feature X added, but he wanted feature X exactly like other product Y? Not only that but there could be zero deviation in results/functionality? Now software seems hard regardless of the complexity. In the end the writing of the software itself is not hard, it's the persons expectations that make it seem that way. The more dogmatic about the results they are the harder software seems to be .... even though it isn't hard .... software is easy!
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Filed under: Code Philosophy Tech
That is right, I just said that. I was thinking about this today as I was writing some enhancements to an application. It's not hard ... it is complex. Complexity can come from multiple things:
1. Bad or overcomplicated design
2. Picking the wrong tool for the job
3. Lack of experience with the size of a project
If there was a one question survey over software being complex or not I believe the majority of people would agree. So why to people say that software is hard? I think it ends up being related to the people who are judging the end result. As I was writing the requested enhancements today I had a set of requirements and knew what I believed the outcome should be. On top of that I knew the requester was not picky about the details .... just wanted functionality X added. It seems simple, even though the complexity of the change (or the complexity of the software itself) may not be. What if the requester was picky? What if he didn't just want feature X added, but he wanted feature X exactly like other product Y? Not only that but there could be zero deviation in results/functionality? Now software seems hard regardless of the complexity. In the end the writing of the software itself is not hard, it's the persons expectations that make it seem that way. The more dogmatic about the results they are the harder software seems to be .... even though it isn't hard .... software is easy!
digg it
seed it
del.icio.us
ma.gnolia
