This looked so interesting I had to post it:
“Myths in Software Engineering” –
A few of my favorite myths:
– Software development consists of discrete, separate activities that can be organized into phases
– The best way to make the *overall* process effective is to have efficient specialists for each phase
– These specialists should produce artifacts that are “intermediate work products”, to be handed off to the next person in the chain
… and my personal favorite:
– If you didn’t write it down, it didn’t happen.
If you enjoy this kind of thing, there is a great little book called “Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering” that goes into much more detail. If I recall correctly, fallacy #1 is “Without metrics, you can’t manage.”
What are some of your favorite myths in software engineering?
“I can’t test without requirements”
And pretty much anything to do with testing that someone prefixes with “You must…” 🙂
Re: Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering – Fantastic book. I really love Robert Glass’ writings. His columns in the Communication of the ACM are also good.