The Mindset

A classic.

Originally, the title of a paper by Fred Brooks suggesting software development is forever doomed to be a complex, unproductive and error prone task.

Until a while ago, this phrase was used mainly by managers trying to justify the quality of the work they are supposed to be responsible for. This usage was widely spread, […]

While the origins of this phrase are not clear, it is widely accepted that the most probable place to find it is in the support knowledge base of a well-known software company, which would have copyrighted it if she could. The reason this sentence cannot be effectively copyrighted is that it is an essential part […]

Complexity is a significant factor in the cost of software development. The more complex code and design are, the greater the cost of developing, maintaining and extending the product is.
Now, I am not going to discuss what complex design and complex code are in this post. There are many metrics available for measuring complexity. […]

Jürgen Ahting wrote a great post about cost estimation, risk analysis, managerial accountability, and the (often not obvious) connection between them.
I feel a need to stress what seems to me as the main point in this article: the lack of accountability. Many problems in managing software projects (and managing in general) are derived from […]

In a recent post, Johanna Rothman is talking about the need for pictures in design documents. Many design documents I’ve seen, however, suffer from having only UML diagrams with almost no plain English descriptions.
It’s true: a picture is worth a thousand words. But a picture cannot always tell the whole story. When it comes […]

When you write an article or a book, you know you have to maintain clarity, simplicity, flow and coherence of your written artifact. You know your creation has to be well written (and even well designed) because people are going to read it. At least you hope they will. You know you are writing for […]

Here’s a nice real-world story from which we can all learn a lot about usability, design and quality in general.
Everybody knows Google Desktop. As it happens, Google Desktop has a problem with re-indexing files if you move them from one location to another on your hard drive. According to this article, the solution is […]

In February 2006, while my first book was still being reviewed and edited, I’ve decided to start writing about a topic that was lying in the back of my mind for quite some time.
I didn’t know (and still don’t) if I can turn it into a "real book", or how it will evolve, so I’ve […]

In Quality In The Real World I’ve suggested an abstract formula for practicing quality in your business environment. According to this formula, achieving quality from a business perspective is balancing all the aspects and forces affecting the way you create your products and finding the golden path that will maximize your benefit for the long […]

Here’s a rhetorical poll: How many times have you heard (or said) one or more of the following sentences:

Time to market is more important to us than quality.
Our customers don’t care about quality. They just want the product delivered as soon as possible.
We have to settle for “good enough quality” because we don’t have […]