From: Joseph M. Newcomer on
So I guess I'm missing out on pointless trends.

I once had the misfortune to have to look at a UML diagram of a state machine. Because it
was written in UML, it conformed to some bureaucratic requirement. It took me less than 5
minutes to find a half-dozen errors in the description. Apparently, the fact that there
was UML made it "correct", but the description did not actually have to be *correct*!

They had actually written code based on this diagram, and were SERIOUSLY ticked off at me
for saying it was wrong, and worse still, demonstrating beyond any doubt that it was
wrong. This forced them to rewrite the code, which they could not do until the UML was
rewritten, but we weren't allowed to do it; it had to be done by the internal team that
was responsible for design, but the team had moved on to other projects (where I expect
they were doing similar damage) so they were seriously annoyed with the outside consultant
who set their project back almost four months. So they dropped me at contract renewal
time. Apparently, it was more important to deliver code on time than to deliver code that
actually would work in the field.
joe

On Thu, 13 May 2010 08:01:48 -0700, "David Ching" <dc(a)remove-this.dcsoft.com> wrote:

>"Joseph M. Newcomer" <newcomer(a)flounder.com> wrote in message
>news:255nu5hsbc9m28gqo11hofghu7c7ve31lj(a)4ax.com...
>> (My problem domain is the 100K SLOC-250K SLOC, which is a size which is
>> intellectually
>> manageable by one person...I don't work in the megalines-of-code world,
>> where some of
>> these testing disciplines are essential)
>
>Heh, these young upstarts are pushing Agile and TDD into the smallest
>projects these days because it is supposed to be cool. They don't ask what
>is the size of the project, Agile fits all sizes, don't you know? You can't
>checkin unless all your unit tests pass. What's that? Oh, it failed
>because the unit test was out of date, and you had to waste time updating
>it? Oh well, it's all for the TEAM!
>
>(It's funny when management keeps referring to THE TEAM when it turns out
>there is only one developer on it.) Anyway, like it or not, this is what
>the software industry is turning into.
>
>-- David
>
Joseph M. Newcomer [MVP]
email: newcomer(a)flounder.com
Web: http://www.flounder.com
MVP Tips: http://www.flounder.com/mvp_tips.htm