Today’s pages mostly talked about software entropy: the idea that as time goes on, any project (not just software) will slowly deteriorate until this decay accelerates into its demise.
This analogy was likened to a “broken window”, and may give you a better idea of project management:
“A broken window.
One broken window, left unrepaired for any substantial length of time, instills in the inhabitants of the building a sense of abandonment — a sense that the powers that be don’t care about the building. So another window gets broken. People start littering. Graffiti appears. Serious structural damage begins. In a relatively short span of time, the building becomes damaged beyond the owner’s desire to fix it, and the sense of abandonment becomes reality.”
Projects lose steam over their lifetimes, and noticing that first “broken window” and getting it fixed, or at the very least boarding it up, is what separates the great from the mediocre. This concept is vital for industrial software projects, something which I hope to put into practice over the summer.
That concludes day 4, and the first week. See you Monday!
#PathToSWE
