[Discuss] Software Development (OT?)

[Richard Pieri]

I suggest that software development hasn't really changed per se. It's 
always had a strong focus on processes. Even when I was hacking little 
things some 30-odd years ago I was following processes. They hadn't been 
formalized yet but the processes were there. What's changed is scale.

If you were writing code for a living 30-odd years ago you were probably 
responsible for entire programs from start to finish. Maybe you worked 
with a partner. It didn't matter if the programs were simple loan 
calculators or office suites or operating systems. It didn't matter if 
you were a one-man shop or you worked for a giant like Xerox. You could 
use whatever procedures were most comfortable for you, change them on a 
whim if you wanted, as long as you delivered your programs on time and 
on budget.

If you write code for a living today then you're probably part of a 
group, an organization in fact, and possibly one that's part of an even 
larger development organization. You're not really a programmer in the 
old sense. You're an assembly line worker. You assemble the pieces of 
code that your managers tell you to write. You follow the procedures set 
down by those managers because if you don't then your code won't work 
with the pieces of code being written by all the other workers in the 
organization. You follow the procedures because you'll be fired if you 
don't and you'll be fired if you complain about them.

-- 
Rich P.