Seven deadly excuses for poor design

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Seven Deadly Excuses for Good Design

Ok, this is slightly sarcastic, but the point is every single one of the points made in the article can be turned around and taken to another extreme that's just as bad as what the author describes.

#1 - Software development is an art, therefore the product will be finished we it's finished. Rushing it will lead to bad design that won't meet customer needs.
Translation: We were too lazy to actually think about the schedule when we made it, are to undisciplined to follow it now that it's there, and are too busy to collect the metrics that would enable us to make a good schedule next time.

#2 - We need X (person/hardware/tool/etc) in order to produce a well designed product for our customers.
Translation - We're too lazy/busy to do a cost benefit analysis on resource X, so we're just going to demand it. If we don't get it and the project fails to meet customer expectations, it's your fault for not giving it to us.

#3 - We are working on X even though it's not in our requirements because we know that they will need it. You wouldn't want to risk delivering a bad product by stopping work on X just because it's not in the requirements, would you?
Translation: We were too lazy when documenting our requirements to address matters such as usability, performance, and stability. By the way, when we dreamed up that schedule you're holding, we assumed that because those things weren't in the requirements, they didn't need to be done. Anyway, we're still too lazy to add it to the requirements and perform any sort of ROI calculation on it, so just trust us that its needed and the way we are doing it is right.

#4 - We're behind schedule because the customer is too slow at answering our questions. It's not our fault.
Translation - On the last project I made this screen this funny green color red text, and I thought it was really cool. But the customer hated it...something about being their CIO being color blind... Anyway, I'm not picking a single color on my own, and I'm not using standard colors like gray, black, and white. Besides, I read on the extreme programming website that we should have a customer representative on site at all times, so the real problem is we're not properly doing extreme programming.

#5 - We can't use that technology, even though it appears to offer all sorts of benefits, because the customer doesn't really need it.
Translation: I know I put that technology on my resume, but I really only know all the buzzwords associated with it and have no clue on how to actually implement it.

#6 - We have to drop that requirement because there's no way to implement it in a way that will conform to our usability requirements.
Translation: I really don't want to write any documentation on how this works. Writing use documentation is such a pain. And then someone might decide that traning material is needed, and I'll have to listen to those annoying training people pick on the way the system works. It's better to just drop it.

#7 - We can't release until it's perfect. Right now we know there are some usability issues, so let's just hold off until they are addressed.
Translation: After we deploy this thing, I become the help desk. I hate being the help desk. The longer we stay in the implementation phase the better. Besides, did I mention I didn't want to write any documentation on things work? Or deal with the training people?

Posted by: Erik1234   Posted on: 09/02/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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