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Definitely agree. I think some people find it controversial these days with agile etc but i think making prototypes is a severely underrated skill and practice.
by is0tope 5y ago
Definitely agree. I think some people find it controversial these days with agile etc but i think making prototypes is a severely underrated skill and practice. Not all problems are obviously tractable from the outset by pure analysis. Sometimes you need to build something out of cardboard and rubber bands (figuratively) to see if it will work. Was a topic I wrote an essay about some time back (https://www.machow.ski/posts/galls-law-and-prototype-driven-development/ https://www.machow.ski/posts/galls-law-and-prototype-driven-...).
- renewedrebecca 5y agoThe weird danger of making prototypes are managers who think having a prototype means you're almost done with the whole task. This is especially bad when the prototype works, but doesn't work well. They think you just need to polish things up a bit when really, you need to take what you've learned and build the real deliverable.
- is0tope 5y agoYes this is very true. There's a certain amount of managing upward, and expectation setting that is required. Unfortunately a common feature of many companies these days is non-technical management managing technical staff, and in such cases it's indeed a dangerous proposition. Another example perhaps as to how the software engineering field still has significant maturing to do vs. e.g. mechanical engineering.