Software Engineering Lore

Originally posted on josephg.com. There’s an old joke that computer science is a lie, because its not really about computers, and its not really a science. Funny joke. Everyone laughs, then someone says “Yeah but it sort of is about computers though, isn’t it?”. Feet shuffle awkwardly. Someone clears their throat and before you know it you’re talking about Category Theory and looking up the history of the word algorithm. Out in the wild, these arguments look like this: ...

Once upon a time, unbeknownst to each other, the “Automated Accounting Applications Association” and the “Consolidated Computerized Capital Corporation” decided that they needed the identical program to perform a certain service. Automated hired a programmer-analyst, Alan, to solve their problem. Meanwhile, Consolidated decided to ask a newly hired entry-level programmer, Charles, to tackle the job, to see if he was as good as he pretended. Alan, having had experienced difficult programming projects, decided to use the PQR structured design methodology. With this in mind he asked his department manager to assign another three programmers as a programming team. Then the team went to work, churning out preliminary reports and problem analysis. ...