m0smithslash's Journal: Software Development - Oct 2003 - Vol. 11 No. 10

Foiling Failure

How can we keep from making the same mistakes over and over again? One problem is that developers are so rushed that they never take time to understand the mistakes of the last project before starting the next. An experience mangement system could be used to keep from repeating past mistakes.

An experience factory is a separate department that monitors projects for lessons that can be applied to future projects. You want to reuse the experience gained, not just the code. Building an experience factory requires resources because the people in the experience factory need to not be associated with other projects.

Unfortunately the article does not give any hard examples of what an experience factory is or how it does its work.

It just takes Time

[TekZen]

Why are developers so rushed?

My experience is that when you take a BUNCH of time in the planning stage, and then take a BUNCH more time for an architecture phase, the development phase is less rushed. However, there are very few deliverables (or stuff management can see/understand) until the development phase begins.

When all the developers get together and plan how/why every little piece should work, there are many fewer repeated mistakes.

The problem I see with an experience management system is th

Re:It just takes Time

[m0smithslash]

They are rushed, of course, due to unrealistic deadlines for "business" reasons as well as poor planning and estimating. Sometimes a bit of resource mismanagement gets thrown into the mix.

So, if I hear what you are saying, rather than dedicate many resources to just gathering the experience of others, dedicate the same resources as part of the project team and in terms of schedule to allow the developers the team they need to really design. I agree.

I was interested in the article of a similar issue we