A further complication is the fact that, for industrial-strength software, there are typically a large number of stakeholders who shape the development process, most of whom are completely unimpressed by the underlying technology for technologies sake. These stakeholders will bring to the table a multitude of hidden and not-so-hidden economic, strategic, and political agendas that often warp the development process through the presence of competing concerns.
For software that matters, the requirements of a system will typically change during its development, not just because of reasons of technology churn or resilience, but also because the very existence of a software development project alters the rules of the problem.
Seeing early products such as design documents and prototypes and then using a system at each executable release are all forcing functions that lead users to better understand and articulate their real needs.
At the same time, this process helps developers master the problem domain, enabling them to ask better questions that illuminate the dark corners of a system’s desired behavior.
Because a large software system is a capital investment, we cannot afford to scrap an existing system every time its requirements change (or for that matter, to absorb considerable amounts fo scrap and rework).
Planned or not, large systems tend to evolve continuously over time, a condition that is often incorrectly labeled software maintenance. To be more precise, it is maintenance when we correct errors; it is evolution when we respond to changing requirements; it is preservation when we continue to use extraordinary means to keep an ancient and decaying piece of software in operation. Unfortunately, experience suggests that an inordinate percentage of software development resources are spent on software preservation.
گزیده:
Will you love me for the rest of my life?
No, I’ll love you for the rest of mine. – From Phenomenon
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