Comments on: Concurrent design and development – a better spin? http://www.kerrybuckley.org/2007/09/26/concurrent-design-and-development-a-better-spin/ What's the simplest thing that could possibly go wrong? Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:30:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Kerry http://www.kerrybuckley.org/2007/09/26/concurrent-design-and-development-a-better-spin/comment-page-1/#comment-8406 Kerry Fri, 05 Oct 2007 10:39:27 +0000 http://www.kerrybuckley.com/2007/09/26/concurrent-design-and-development-a-better-spin/#comment-8406 I take your point to some extent, but I'd argue that many of the problems we have in implementing IT are caused by the de-skilling and devaluing of software development. In my opinion design and development are two sides of the same coin, and should be separated as little as possible. Trying to increase agility while still treating coding as monkey work is doomed, IMO. As far as architecture and overall design goes, that's something that is handled by the team as a whole, guided by the most experienced developer/designer/architects. See Martin Fowler's articles <a href="http://martinfowler.com/articles/designDead.html#id2251106" rel="nofollow">Is Design Dead?</a> and <a href="http://martinfowler.com/ieeeSoftware/whoNeedsArchitect.pdf" rel="nofollow">Who Needs an Architect?</a> I take your point to some extent, but I’d argue that many of the problems we have in implementing IT are caused by the de-skilling and devaluing of software development.

In my opinion design and development are two sides of the same coin, and should be separated as little as possible. Trying to increase agility while still treating coding as monkey work is doomed, IMO.

As far as architecture and overall design goes, that’s something that is handled by the team as a whole, guided by the most experienced developer/designer/architects.

See Martin Fowler’s articles Is Design Dead? and Who Needs an Architect?

]]> By: Nik Sargent http://www.kerrybuckley.org/2007/09/26/concurrent-design-and-development-a-better-spin/comment-page-1/#comment-8343 Nik Sargent Wed, 03 Oct 2007 23:17:27 +0000 http://www.kerrybuckley.com/2007/09/26/concurrent-design-and-development-a-better-spin/#comment-8343 I tend to agree with most of what you're saying but I think one issue you have missed, which is inherent in a waterfall model, is that designers and developers are not necessarily the same people with the same skills. Yes - a skilled builder could probably build his own house and design it on the fly, but I doubt the greatest works of architecture could have been constructed so. Of course, building the greatest works of architecture is not necessarily the aim in an IT context - but on the other hand, anything of sufficiently large scale needs shared vision and distribution of skills. I do wonder if design-by-code is the best way to achieve this? I tend to agree with most of what you’re saying but I think one issue you have missed, which is inherent in a waterfall model, is that designers and developers are not necessarily the same people with the same skills. Yes – a skilled builder could probably build his own house and design it on the fly, but I doubt the greatest works of architecture could have been constructed so.

Of course, building the greatest works of architecture is not necessarily the aim in an IT context – but on the other hand, anything of sufficiently large scale needs shared vision and distribution of skills. I do wonder if design-by-code is the best way to achieve this?

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