Thread

Explaining to business people why building software is still hard

66 points · 59 comments · fagnerbrack

SoftTalker · 1790110376 · focus · HN ↗
Pretty much every project. Initially your pace is great. You're knocking out features quickly. Everyone is upbeat and enthusiastic. Then you have to put it all together. You discover scenarios that the specs don't cover. You need more info from business about validating certain combinations of inputs. When you get that, you find contradictions with some other stuff you thought was already done. You need to store another field that they forgot about, or thought was just common knowledge. So now you need to alter the database. Combinatorial complexity. It's the essential problem with software systems. If business people don't understand it, tell them to read Brooks. If they still don't understand, tell them to read it again.
1. skydhash · 1790110695 · focus · HN ↗
  > Combinatorial complexity. It's the essential problem with software systems
  After using OpenBSD for a while, I fully adopted the “write less code” approach. Create the simplest solution and leave “features” out until you need them. Nice to have should be practically banned.

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