RE: Two persons per product"

["jt" <jt@xxxxxx>]

Guys,

I'm gonna attempt, again, to move this to the Non-Tech list.  (That's
probably the easiest way to kill a thread...;-)  I'll cross-post this over
there, with some additional comments.


Where is this discussion leading...?  Who knows...?!?


===> But there is one subtle point of agreement throughout all these posts:
that one individual can BOTH design and code an app.  That's been the common
theme, in the discussion of whether "two eyes are better than one" or not.


This is NOT a given, however.  In fact, I'd say it's the exception to the
general rule in the industry:  you need one personality-type to specialize
in designing an app, and a second personality-type to code the thing.

IMHO, there are both advantages and disadvantages to EVERYTHING, and this is
no exception.  It's a two-person team approach, also, but not the one I've
found works best.  Not to say that the Analyst vs. Programmer concept
doesn't work, and not to say that it's never appropriate to use.  I just
haven't found, in my experience, the kind of projects where this approach
actually works better than a two-person P/A team.


jt

| -----Original Message-----
| From: midrange-l-admin@midrange.com
| [mailto:midrange-l-admin@midrange.com]On Behalf Of Leif Svalgaard
| Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2001 1:05 AM
| To: midrange-l@midrange.com
| Subject: Re: Two persons per product"
|
|
| From: Brad Jensen <brad@elstore.com>
| > > The design is what comes before the source code. Some people
| > > don't have any design, they start writing code right away.
| > > The execution of the design is writing the source code,
| > > that is: transforming the design ideas into executable reality.
| >
| > If you are a good programmer the design and the coding are
| > interactive and synergistic. Any design that survives the coding
| > unscathed is a trivial design, it is really just ordering form a
| > menu.
|
| This may be true for small programs, but is false for large
| projects (with, say, 500 programs). The discussion does
| not lead anywhere because most people are too emotional
| about it. Many smaller shops work in a way that does not
| scale up (and most shops are happy about this, some even
| proud of it).