INFOWORLD GRIPE LINE BY ED FOSTER Bookmark this page

  
Replying To:
It's the Microsoft Model (none / 0) (#8)
by chuckbo on Tue Mar 21, 2006 at 11:32:48 AM PDT

I think the last big company I remember having exceptional code was Bourland, back when Philippe Kahn ran the show. I remember him giving a demo of the unreleased version of Quattro where he'd say hey let's try this, and you could see the programmers shaking their head while Philippe left their script. And it would still work. But I also know that buggy software is due to the Microsoft Methodology. When I was a corporate programmer in the 80s, we wouldn't dare delivery code with bugs, and if one was found, we'd be up overnight to fix it. Bad code was like career-limiting moves. But as the business got used to paying less on PC software, they'd question the costs we were quoting. I started cutting out huge chunks of time that would've been spent reviewing requirements, testing, and debugging. I'd tell clients that I was using the Microsoft Methodology which meant that we delivered a version of the product that wasn't fully debugged, but the user would get it weeks or months sooner and cheaper, and they would help find bugs to be fixed in the next release. And they'd always nod enthusiastically and agree that that was a good model because that's how Excel/Word/Project (fill in your favorite MS product) worked.


Post Comment

You are not logged in. If you don't have a user account yet, by all means go make one! If you do have one, you can post as "yourself" by filling in your nickname and password below. Otherwise, your comment will be posted as Anonymous User.

Create Account
Nickname:
Password:

Post Comment: Post your comment below and then please answer the security question. I apologize for the inconvenience, but it does help deter spammers. -- Ed Foster
Subject:
Comment:

To post your comment, please answer the following security question:
 Which of the following is a car?
Tennessee, Bulldog, Michigan, Washington, Porsche, Currant
Allowed HTML: <A [HREF] [NAME]> <DT> <TT></TT> <OL></OL> <CITE></CITE> <CODE></CODE> <I></I> <UL></UL> <BR> <STRONG></STRONG> <BLOCKQUOTE [TYPE]></BLOCKQUOTE> <DD> <EM></EM> <P> <B></B> <LI> <DL></DL>
Menu
· create account
· faq
· search

Login
Make a new account
Username:
Password:

 HOME  NEWS  COLUMNS  BLOGS  PODCASTS  TECHNOLOGIES  TEST CENTER  EVENTS  CAREERS  IT EXEC-CONNECT   About Awards Contact Us 

Copyright © 2006, Reprints, Permissions, Licensing, IDG Network, Privacy Policy.
All Rights reserved. InfoWorld is a leading publisher of technology information and product reviews on topics including viruses,
phishing, worms, firewalls, security, servers, storage, networking, wireless, databases, and web services.

 ComputerWorld :: LinuxWorld :: Network World :: CIO :: PC World :: Darwin :: CMO :: CSO
IT Careers :: JavaWorld :: Macworld :: Mac Central :: Playlist :: GamePro :: GameStar :: Gamerhelp
ITWorld Canada :: Computerwoche :: Techworld UK :: tecChannel :: IDG.se :: IDG.no :: IDG.pl

create account | faq | search