RE: The Write/Right Stuff ? Perhaps...

["Hightower, Mary" <mary -dot- hightower -at- corp -dot- bellsouth -dot- net>]

First off, thanks to Tara for sharing a great article!  I actually found it
encouraging that someone out there is doing it right.

Mike, I agree with your point that most software we write for or work on
isn't as critical as the Space Shuttle (no one dies or is in such threat).  

People are too fixated, however, on how fast they get the software to market
instead of whether it meets the customer's needs.  They are aggravating the
customers they don't want to loose.

I have seen more than one product ruined because someone was panicked about
the time it was supposed to get to market.  The problems were 1)they set the
release date before designing the product and 2) they didn't allow time to
plan, design, test and correct the product prior to its release.  I suppose
this is a function of chasing the market instead of leading it or being
secure about the quality of your company's products.

Software will never improve - for us, writing about software - until the
process is slowed down and the focus shifted to the product itself instead
of time to market (and as Tog pointed out, half the product may be the
documentation that accompanies the software/hardware).

One developer I worked with said, "GM doesn't turn out half a car then
explains to the buyer, 'Oh, we'll give you the oil filter, other two tires
and seats in the next release.'"

Version 1 should work.  It's easy in our corner of the industry, however, to
say, "we'll add that in the next release".  This is one reason why
"non-critical" software is so messy and the process for developing it so
sloppy.  

The ones working on software for the Space Shuttle have it a little easier
in the sense that they are fully aware of the criticalness of the situation.
We have to make it critical.  We have too much room to slide.

You can't automate everything, and you can only go so fast.  Doing something
well costs.

Thanks!

MEH
Atlanta, GA



-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Andrew Uhl [mailto:uhl -dot- mike -at- epamail -dot- epa -dot- gov]
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2000 4:00 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: The Write/Right Stuff ? Perhaps...


Esteemed Colleagues:

I appreciated the link to the article about the team of NASA/contractor
programmers that write and maintain the Shuttle on-board computer
software. A colleague of mine used to work on that team; and I am an
employee of Lockheed Martin.

This NASA team writes near-perfect code because peoples' lives depend on
the quality of their programs. What the article fails to make explicit
is how expensive and tedious this kind of software development is. Code
improvements take place at glacial speed. Imagine that you want to make
a minor change in a single line of code, one that you're confident will
only improve the program. Such a change may likely take more than a
year--if ever--to make because of the lengthy paperwork and approval
process. This is great, indeed necessary, for some applications, such as
the shuttle and other life-critical systems. On the other hand, no one
dies when MS Word crashes. Thank God. ;-)

My point is, while it's great that some teams write error-free code, one
might not necessarily have the right mindset to tolerate the bureaucracy
that goes along with that kind organization. You have to be somewhat
detached and extremely patient to endure this kind of environment.

Writing documentation is much like programming. Give me more staff or
more time, or both, and I can probably produce better documentation. Get
the SMEs to adhere to a regular schedule and ensure they provide all of
the needed information and I can guarantee even better documentation.
Make a product very slowly and make changes only through a detailed,
well-documented process, and my technical writing team might even get
bored for lack of a challenge. :-) On the other and, if we use this
approach, our competition will have a product out the door--albeit one
with bugs and less-than-perfect documentation, a decade ahead of us.

(http://www.fastcompany.com/online/06/writestuff.html)

Cheers.

-Mike
-- 
Michael Andrew Uhl (mailto:uhl -dot- mike -at- epa -dot- gov)
Lockheed Martin - U.S. EPA Scientific Visualization Center
Ph. (office) 919.541.4283; 919.541.3716 (lab)
P.O. Box 14365  Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sponsored by Weisner Associates Inc., Online Information Services
Training & consulting for RoboHELP, Dreamweaver, HTML, and HTML-Based Help.
More info at http://www.weisner.com/train/ or mailto:training -at- weisner -dot- com -dot- 

Sponsored by SOLUTIONS, Inc. http://www.SolutionsEvents.com or 800-448-4230
RoboHELP 2000 for HTML Help Seminars, Basic & Advanced, 6/28-30, Boston, MA
Hands-on Training from Char James-Tanny, Certified RoboHELP Instructor

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
mary -dot- hightower -at- corp -dot- bellsouth -dot- net
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-32144Q -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.