• john.riley-1111039 (11/7/2013)


    In Britain, we talk about 'Rolls-Royce solutions', usually as something to be avoided because of the cost in time and money. This is not to demean the excellence of Rolls-Royce products in any way, but the fact is that most of us get by with a car that is not a Rolls-Royce. And similarly, most of us develop systems that do not need to be at the luxury end of the market.

    At Uni, in a lecture on system modelling, we were asked how we should choose a model for a system. After various suggestions, the lecturer said simply "The cheapest acceptable". That was 35 years ago and it is still stuck in my mind.

    Very often it is quicker and easier to adapt an existing, not particularly well-written system for a new application than write a model of coding efficiency from scratch. Save that for the bits which don't quite meet the spec.

    Not all pegs nor all holes are the same shape.

    You don't apply the same standards to all forms of software. Not every piece of code is life and death. And some applications are not financially justified in being written at all if they need to be perfected to this standard.

    Perfection and simplicity are nice aspirations. But delivery date is a requirement, so not meeting it is a bug just as much as anything else.