

Reg Braithwaite does Daily WTF - bdfh42
http://weblog.raganwald.com/2008/02/mouse-trap.html

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nostrademons
A disturbing number of startups have code like this too. They start out on a
new project all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed thinking they'll change the
world. They write lots of code, it may even work, but nobody wants it. That's
the most likely outcome for a startup...

Then, being determined sons-of-bitches, they cast around for a new idea
that'll build on what they've already built and prevent their old code base
from going to waste. They find a potential market that's somewhat related,
repurpose the code, add some new third-party libraries to deal with the
specifics of the new market, and launch again.

Rinse, lather, repeat.

The solution's really to throw out all your code and start over when you go
into a new market, keeping the _knowledge_ you've gained. But since code is
visible and knowledge isn't, I've never worked at a startup that encouraged
this...

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Xichekolas
The real WTF was letting a Business Analyst do anything that could directly
affect the code without it going through a programmer first.

Would you let some guy build you a car if he had changed his oil once, years
ago?

A+ story. Can't believe how much this stuff happens.

~~~
raganwald
I recall reading something (sorry no link at the moment) which exhorted people
to remember that _anything_ which affected the software's ability to meet
requirements is code and is to be treated as such.

Which means... some kind of revision control and the full scrutiny of your QA
process before deployment.

So if a customer says, "and I want to be able to change the workflow rules
without programming," you can say "Sure we can do that!" But you have to
educate them to the fact that just because you give them a way to do that with
a GUI or a DSL or whatever, the heavy part of the process--specification,
testing, whatever--does not magically go away.

I'm rambling a bit, but I guess I am saying that had this project succeeded
exactly as they envisioned it, an incredible WTF would have hit them when the
customer started changing the rules and breaking everything.

------
mattculbreth
Man, did this actually happen? I take it Reg is the "New Guy"?

~~~
raganwald
This actually happened. But, unh, I was like, unh, there but not there,
ifyaknowwhatimean, kinda-sorta.

