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> ...requirements engineering is actually one of the most difficult parts for business applications. Some projects have collapsed with millions spent before wri

> ...requirements engineering is actually one of the most difficult parts for business applications. Some projects have collapsed with millions spent before writing any code, simply trying to untangle the requirements. This gives me a terrible idea: Put https://xkcd.com/1737/ https://xkcd.com/1737/ (Scale) and continuous integration into a blender. Stand up a whole new team to build out your Ultimate Last Widget, from first principles, every 5 years. Have maybe 5 teams running continuously. Each team operates asynchronously from all the others and there is no blocking. Maybe teams can freely exchange ideas, and maybe workers can switch teams at will. Hmm. This would unfortunately result in a Super-Team™ that knows how to create a new Widget X from scratch in (eventually) record time, but not necessarily maintain it. And there's the good question of whether squishy real-world influences would cause the last of the teams to succumb to second-system effect... Wow this is hard

pjc50 7y ago
Some defence projects end up being run like that. Although it tends to operate in reverse: project A has been running to produce the Ultimate Fighter for 20 years, but that's taken too long, so a slightly scaled back project for Acceptable Fighter is launched. Ten years later, neither is finished, so project Desperate Stopgap fighter is launched. Another few years on and an actual war breaks out, so Obsolete Fighter With Guns Taped To It is used to do the actual fighting until the losses are unacceptable and all the preceding teams are galvanised into producing actual results. (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon_Wars , but also applied to a lot of early WW2 and things like the UK V-bombers)
- NeedMoreTea 7y ago
  The V bombers were more a case of missiles? Oh, we never thought of those, let's make an inspiring Pathe newsreel and pretend they are still cutting edge. Though your tale is a pretty close summary of the political story underneath cancelling Supersonic Harrier and TSR2 for F111, and the Buccaneers and Phantoms we eventually ended up with. Though you missed the opportunity beloved of politicians to merge Acceptable Fighter with Acceptable Naval Fighter into one aircraft and end up with White Elephant that barely flies, and certainly doesn't float. :)

pjc50 7y ago

Some defence projects end up being run like that. Although it tends to operate in reverse: project A has been running to produce the Ultimate Fighter for 20 years, but that's taken too long, so a slightly scaled back project for Acceptable Fighter is launched. Ten years later, neither is finished, so project Desperate Stopgap fighter is launched. Another few years on and an actual war breaks out, so Obsolete Fighter With Guns Taped To It is used to do the actual fighting until the losses are unacceptable and all the preceding teams are galvanised into producing actual results. (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon_Wars , but also applied to a lot of early WW2 and things like the UK V-bombers)

NeedMoreTea 7y ago
The V bombers were more a case of missiles? Oh, we never thought of those, let's make an inspiring Pathe newsreel and pretend they are still cutting edge. Though your tale is a pretty close summary of the political story underneath cancelling Supersonic Harrier and TSR2 for F111, and the Buccaneers and Phantoms we eventually ended up with. Though you missed the opportunity beloved of politicians to merge Acceptable Fighter with Acceptable Naval Fighter into one aircraft and end up with White Elephant that barely flies, and certainly doesn't float. :)