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Some good points. I know the NASA thing was meant to merely underscore a point but I've seen this comparison so many times that it bugs me and I wish folks w
by ragav 19y ago
Some good points.
I know the NASA thing was meant to merely underscore a point but I've seen this comparison so many times that it bugs me and I wish folks would stop using it. The average NASA sw engineer develops a ridiculously low number of lines of code a year (I think I read something like less than 100 ines). A 6000 line patch has 2500 page spec.
The dynamics are vastly different than in any commerical software.
A nice article on the process is here http://www.fastcompany.com/online/06/writestuff.html http://www.fastcompany.com/online/06/writestuff.html . Makes a good read.
- jmtame 19y agoI had never heard of the NASA comparison before, up until about a week or two ago. Liked it and thought it was worth a mention =) P.S. I added a "bonus" at the bottom of the article, which was the first thing I remember that really frustrated me at the startup I joined.
- albrecht 19y agoI thought this was a good article but one of your points touches on one of the reasons why purely engineer-driven start-ups fail: no business sense. I agree that the MBA-types need to stay away from the engineers on a day-to-day basis, but I've seen too many start-ups shoot themselves in the foot because they launch a product without any market research and no understanding of how to make partnerships that will help them scale. Good luck with whatever you do next.
- staunch 19y ago...why purely engineer-driven start-ups fail: no business sense. I'm not sure how you managed to draw that conclusion. His bonus point is that the CTO didn't even do work, that's hardly engineer-driven. And they had a Stanford MBA, who was apparently a drain during product development. Most successful technology startups are engineer-driven. Google is the ultimate example of just how far a couple engineers can go without any "business sense".
- especkman 19y agoWho was it at Google who had the sense to clone Overture's business model, I wonder.
- albrecht 19y agoAn MBA. The average MBA isn't the kind of person you want, but a really bright MBA can be a game changer if they stay out of your hair.
- paul 19y agoNope. Also, it's not a clone in any meaningful sense.
- far33d 19y agoAdWords was invented by Eric Veach, formerly of Pixar, wasn't it?
- paul 19y agoWhat does it mean to invent a product? Adwords is just a name. The actual system was built and rebuilt and improved many times. Eric did do a lot to make it a success though -- he's part of the reason why Google makes so much more money than Yahoo.
- far33d 19y agoI guess I was saying invent as in "came up with the thing that differentiates it from everything else out there" - in this case, the auction system.
- nickb 19y agoIt was Omid. He put his job on the line and the company when he bet on AdWords. http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#omid http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#omid
- Leon 19y agoI've interned at the NASA software testing facility (IV&V) for a couple of years. Their practices for V&V are really quite amazing and thorough, and even more so for validation of unsupervised neural networks. It very much puts to shame conventional software practices for software assuredness. The fast company article mentioned seems to only glance at the level of complexity they employ to consistently obtain correct software.