Crisis or Not?

So many needs going untended…

In my posts I occasionally mention the Software Crisis. The authors of that Wikipedia entry seem to intimate that the Software Crisis is a thing of the past. And some of those who have heard of the term seem to share that view.

Personally, I see the Software Crisis as being as profound now as it ever was. Maybe even more profound, given the impact software has on our lives and societies – and the number of folks now working in the software industries, as well as the number suffering from the fruits(?!) of they labours.

Here’s that Wikipedia entry’s list of manifestations of the software crisis:

• Projects running over-budget.
• Projects running over-time.
• Software was very inefficient.
• Software was of low quality.
• Software often did not meet requirements.
• Projects were unmanageable and code difficult to maintain.
• Software was never delivered.

To which above list I’d add some more manifestations I see almost everywhere, daily:

• Confusion over who matters (Cf. Cost of Focus).
• Attending to the needs of the Folks That Matter solely via software solutions (a.k.a. “Working software”).
• Fear of, and/or disinterest in, improving the way the work works.
• Delusions as to the real reasons “successful” software development is actually successful.
• Absence of dialogue as to the assumptions and beliefs governing effectiveness of various approaches to software development.
• Blindness to the role of (organisational) culture in effective software development.

In short, I posit that the Software Crisis remains a chronic crisis, whose scope and impact continues to grow.

And from the #NoSoftware perspective, maybe the very term “Software Crisis” is just a mask for the broader “Needs Crisis” being suffered by humanity as a whole?

– Bob

Further Reading

Cohane, R. (2017). Has the Software Crisis Passed? [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@ryancohane/has-the-software-crisis-passed-d45ce975a1e7.