Duct Tape? Who Cares?
OK – I want to make this post as short as possible, since by posting this I am being a hypocrite. Anyone in the geekosphere will have heard about the “whole duct tape thing” – no, I am not going to link to it. All I will say is this: Who cares? Some of the best software I have used has obviously been hacked together really poorly. Some of the best games I have played have had corners cut to ship on time. Conversely, I have used rock-solid software that has ticked all the boxes in development. But it’s useless . Software is NOT about how we build it – it’s about how we USE it. When the USER is sat in front of the PC, they don’t give a crap about the development methodology used, constraints applied to the project or the fact that Jimbo forgot to wear his wacky tie on Wacky Tie Thursday at the office this month. Ultimately, what they do care about is: It works as expected. It doesn’t fail all the time. It protects their personal data (even if they don’t