use make and version control system for every project?

[Ian Bicking]

On Wednesday, October 8, 2003, at 12:47 PM, Peter Hansen wrote:
> None of this is to place blame, per se, but merely to ensure that
> our process receives periodic scrutiny so we can improve it when
> it fails us.  If the person who checked in the buggy code didn't
> work with a partner, we need to fix that.  If the partners who
> checked in the buggy code didn't test adequately, we need to fix
> that.  If the customer didn't write an acceptance test that
> covered this potential problem, we need to fix that.

Customers writing acceptance tests?  You must have very educated, 
thoughtful customers.  Even if they are just descriptions, not 
automated tests, I don't frequently come upon non-programmers (or maybe 
a project manager) that can thoroughly and formally describe what would 
constitute an acceptance test.  Even among programmers and project 
managers it's more often a developing skill, not a well-honed skill.

Most of the time I feel like I have to tell people what they want 
anyway.  Which isn't there fault -- when someone wants some application 
they usually haven't thought about applications in the general sense 
enough to understand some of the more subtle decisions.  Just like I 
couldn't make a useful decision about the kind of siding to use on a 
house, even though if I was informed I would probably have an opinion 
that was specific to my needs.

--
Ian Bicking | ianb at colorstudy.com | http://blog.ianbicking.org