| > Software has characteristics that make it hard to build with traditional management techniques Perhaps some software development techniques would work though... > The main value in software is not the code produced, but the knowledge accumulated by the people who produced it. Those people go on to work on other things or for other organization. So, while that statement might have some truth to it, it's still the case that the code has to be useful, robust, and able to impart knowledge to those who read it (and the documentation). > Start as Simple as Possible That's a solid suggestion to many (most?) software projects; but - if your goal is to write something comprehensive and flexible, you may need to replace it with: "Start by simplifying your implementation objectives as much as possible" and it's even sometimes the case that you want to sort of do the opposite, i.e. "Start as complex as possible, leading you to immediately avoid the complex specifics in favor of a powerful generalization, which is simpler". |
> Perhaps some software development techniques would work though...
As you go up the management chain, you usually run into some layer where people are traditional managers, who want to run a software project like a traditional project. And behold, you're at this problem. Saying "software development techniques would work" is useless unless you can get those managers to change. And when you get them to change, the problem moves up one layer.