Re: Open source? -> Need to read source to model?

[James Odell]

As Miles says:
[snip] 
>I do think that one good model is the interaction of a strong 
>programmer with a strong domain knowledgable person. But the 
>role of a programmer in this situation should not be to just 
>take what the domain person says they want done in broad 
>outline, and interpret it. Instead, strong programmer/modellers 
>should use their knowledge to ask the kind of questions that 
>challenge and clarify the domain person's understanding, and 
>the domain person [this is getting awkward!] should use their 
>knowledge to challenge the assumptions and bring new ideas and 
>insights to the programmer/modeller. The programmer should not 
>go off into a dark room somewhere, come up with something that 
>they think approaches the goals set, and hand it back as a fait 
>accompli. 
[snip]

I agree.  In my experience with business systems, the longer the 
domain expert is out of the loop, the lower the quality of the 
final system.  Having said that, if the domain expert does not 
program, then the programmer does go off into a dark room.  
However, I try to minimize dark-room time as much as possible.  
Currently, I define subprojects no longer that 21 calendar days 
for business systems.  If the subproject is for programming, the 
domain expert reviews the results after no more than 21 days.  
Also, I typically recommend defining projects as consisting of 
about 4 subprojects--where each subproject has a deliverable.  
        As a note, most system bugs/features are usually in the 
specifications, not the code--where the specification 
bugs/features take much longer to fix.  Therefore, by keeping the
projects shorter, problems can be discovered sooner and fixed 
easier than in long projects.


Jim Odell
www.jamesodell.com


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