GJH
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- Aug 20, 2007
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It's like any other engineering project. You don't start to construct a building until you have designed it. You don't start the design until you have specified what the function of the building is to be and where its various components are required to be.I am bemused by this little tiff. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating. If it works and does what Grommet and others want then how he achieved that is entirely up to him isn't it? Or have I missed something?
I always judge by results, but then I come from the construction industry. And so the only thing I know about the IT industry is that it is the only other one I know that makes the construction industry look good at project management.
Interestingly enough, classic information engineering techniques are based on architectural practice. In a building, for instance, it doesn't really matter if you decide that a bedroom is to be used as a playroom or a study. However, if the bathroom and kitchen have been put in the wrong places then rerouting all the plumbing &c is a much bigger job - so it pays to do the analysis and design thoroughly before starting to build.
Karl asked earlier "How can you design a test plan when you don't even know how the software works internally." The point is that you don't need to know how the software works internally. What you do need to know, however, is what results should be produced by the software for any given inputs because only by doing so do you know whether it is working. It's the same sort of thing as testing a structure like a bridge. It doesn't really matter how it is built but it does matter that it is capable of taking the weights it is supposed to take.