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This title is misleading, should be closer to "Government frequently adopts anti-patterns when maintaining software" Something more constrained to what the arti

by jxramos 11y ago

This title is misleading, should be closer to "Government frequently adopts anti-patterns when maintaining software" Something more constrained to what the article is actually about rather that the global catch all "software maintenance".

nmrm2 11y ago
I think the article is using software maintenance as a kind of inside-government term-of-art for the maintenance portion of a waterfall-style project. Undoubtedly, the audience of this article is software developers and managers of software projects within governemnt. Therefore, although the title doesn't convey the article's message to outsiders, it might not actually be misleading.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
smarks 11y ago
I agree that the title is misleading, but I'd clarify it to "Software development as typically practiced in industry is an anti-pattern." (Maybe it also applies to government; I don't know.) It seems fairly typical in my experience for the old thing to be continually patched over instead of fixed, awaiting replacement by the new thing that is never quite ready.
- xigency 11y ago
  In general, "the new thing" doesn't solve problems that patches fix. For a web platform especially, it sounds like expecting a new engine from a new coat of paint.
- PaulHoule 11y ago
  A lot of it is that consistently people design things on the assumption that 80% of labor will be in the first release, rather than the 80% going into maintaiance which is what happens most of the time. This is closely linked to the idea that least cost development is a matter of doing every individual action 'cheaply' and pretending you are not going to screw things up. If you want least cost actually least risk is a good approximation.
a_e_k 11y ago
Indeed, that's the headline on the article itself, but it does seem misleading. I think "Software Maintenance by Skeleton Crew is an Anti-pattern" would be a better but still concise headline.
- 56quarters 11y ago
  Updated
sarahallen 11y ago
I spent over 20 years in the software industry and I've never seen anyone describe software as in "maintenance" except when staffed by a skeleton crew who does not do user research or anything forward thinking. That's ok, I guess, in industry, not ok in government when a fixed size market is not a business indicator, but a fact-of-life.

by jxramos 11y ago

nmrm2 11y ago

I think the article is using software maintenance as a kind of inside-government term-of-art for the maintenance portion of a waterfall-style project. Undoubtedly, the audience of this article is software developers and managers of software projects within governemnt. Therefore, although the title doesn't convey the article's message to outsiders, it might not actually be misleading.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

smarks 11y ago

I agree that the title is misleading, but I'd clarify it to "Software development as typically practiced in industry is an anti-pattern." (Maybe it also applies to government; I don't know.) It seems fairly typical in my experience for the old thing to be continually patched over instead of fixed, awaiting replacement by the new thing that is never quite ready.

xigency 11y ago
In general, "the new thing" doesn't solve problems that patches fix. For a web platform especially, it sounds like expecting a new engine from a new coat of paint.
PaulHoule 11y ago
A lot of it is that consistently people design things on the assumption that 80% of labor will be in the first release, rather than the 80% going into maintaiance which is what happens most of the time. This is closely linked to the idea that least cost development is a matter of doing every individual action 'cheaply' and pretending you are not going to screw things up. If you want least cost actually least risk is a good approximation.

a_e_k 11y ago

Indeed, that's the headline on the article itself, but it does seem misleading. I think "Software Maintenance by Skeleton Crew is an Anti-pattern" would be a better but still concise headline.

56quarters 11y ago
Updated

sarahallen 11y ago

I spent over 20 years in the software industry and I've never seen anyone describe software as in "maintenance" except when staffed by a skeleton crew who does not do user research or anything forward thinking. That's ok, I guess, in industry, not ok in government when a fixed size market is not a business indicator, but a fact-of-life.