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Subject:Re: The Mythical Man-Month From:Richard Lewis <tech44writer -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:Techwr-l <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 19 Jun 2007 11:23:49 -0700 (PDT)
>From what I gathered by looking at Wikipedia's blurb on the Mythical Man-Month, the book is, in large part, about the problem of effective requirements communications in software projects. Granted, we all know about this problem. What, I feel, is lacking is writings about the true extent of the problem. I am currently spearheading enterprise-wide integration efforts across a large company. In the course of doing such, I communicate with alot of business analyst type people, including management level.
What really astounds me is how poor the requirements communications process is. Sorry to say it, but 98% of all business analysts can only maintain focus on essential (i.e., implementation independent) requirements for about 30 seconds. Afterward, he/she HAS to digress into, time-wasting implementation details, that should either be postponed until much later in the discussions - or, more often than not, need not be discussed at all. I say HAS because analysts very often appear to be driven to act in such a way out of some great fear. A ways back, someone wrote a book called "The Psychology of Computer Programming". Needed: "The Neurosis of Requirements Analysis".
Richard Lewis
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