Picture this: It's the mid 1960s, and it's in an hectic French comic book magazine company. The building is filled with highly creative but always late comic book artists that miss the printing deadlines. A verbose Achille Talon enters his boss room to present his latest idea. The boss, a crude caricature of Goscinny, uncomfortably sits behind his desk (he's short) that prominently displays a sign with a single work, in bold lettering: "NON" (French for "no", if you haven't guessed).
Working with customers as a software developer can be eerily similar to that. Even if the deadlines can be fixed, you are still trying to balance the creativity of new ideas with the harsh reality of not only technical feasibility but also time. As such, being accommodating isn't always the best direction when negotiating new functionality in a software development project.
I'm fascinated to see how software development projects can achieve anything at any time when there are no clear deadlines. It seems like that can happen with open source projects, research in universities, and even with a few video games. But then, maybe that's what happens after I get used to work under pressure as a living.
Published on December 11, 2012 at 21:48 EST
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