From: barryb@bilver.uucp (Barry Bond)
Subject: Re: Do Software Engineers Actualy Do So Badly?
Organization: W. J. Vermillion - Winter Park, FL
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 11:03:15 GMT
Summary: My own personal experience

     I've been reading this thread with interest.  I'm told, and can easily
believe, that I've had some rather unusual experiences in the few years since
I joined this (software engineering) field.  I REALLY hope this isn't the
norm.  :-)

     But, I just calculated that 86% of the projects I've been on (seven) so
far failed because the project management put political games, favortism,
backstabbing, and deception ahead of logic and reason.  My own personal
experience has been that we've always had the equipment and (sometimes GENUIS)
talent we needed to do a great job.  We just didn't let the creative talent
we had accomplish anything.

     I don't want to start any arguments -- not that I perceive what I'm
saying here to be contrary to anyone posting so far.  I've not had one bad
experience at one company; I've had 86% of my experiences be bad.  :)  I've
also been on the management side as well as the worker side.  I have managed
a highly successful department of 20 people and had the respect (I felt) from
those under me.

     I don't know how many times I've seen us sit in a conference room where
one of the project leader's "buddies" would suggest something, 10 people (all
recognized as top notch programmers with many awards in their many years of
service at the company) sit there shaking their head saying "it doesn't work
that way" and -- guess who we'd go with?

     I don't know how many times I've seen us not take the time to design
something right.  We didn't have the time or money to do it then.  But, we
always seem to have the time and money to fix the [now regarded as crisis-
mode if not failed) project later, when the customer is rightfully complaining.
Of course, it always costs many, MANY times the money, time and human spirit
to fix then.  I've never understood what we saved by doing this.  But, so
far, it's been done 86% of the time in my experience.

     Of course, by now most (but not all) of my experience has been in the
defense/government realm, too.  :-)

     I have had the pleasure of working with some incredibly great people
in this field, and I have the pleasure of teaching some of them now -- as I
also teach software engineering.  So far, I haven't seen many projects have
any problems except exactly those the software engineers tried to warn we'd
have if we kept doing things the way we were doing.  I have seen so many
people who loved software engineering [at one time, anyway] come through
REALLY wanting to make a positive difference, only to wind up totally drained
of spirit, hating five of seven days of their lives, and (an incredible many)
leaving the field not being able to bear working that way the rest of their
lives.  I now know about 30 (!) such people;  I know ONE of them particularly
well:  myself.  :-)

     I have seen people so desirous of some PRIDE, satisfaction and fulfill-
ment, they have spent great quantities of their own time developing something
the company/project needed badly.  They weren't being allowed to work -- at
work -- in a way that got the job done with high quality and great personal
pride and satisfaction, so they did it on their own time.  (Often, this
development wound up being used in the project and regarded as one of most
reliable areas of software after testing and field use.)  I have seen these
same people get written reprimands for doing that, because it intimidated one
of the leaders.  What a way to encourage initiative!

     I loved the book PEOPLEWARE, by the way.  :-)

     I am not qualified to suggest that this is a problem in the whole
field.  I suggest that this is my opinion (and the opinion of a great many
technical people with whom I've worked on the same projects at the same
companies) why an incredibly disappointing 86% of the projects I've been
on failed.  Just my two cents...

     Barry
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng,comp.groupware