[coyotos-dev] Random rants

[Jonathan S. Shapiro]

Just finished the first draft of various MIL-STD-498 documents that we
need to submit for one of our contracts. 70 bloody pages of
international requirements-ese, a language almost, but not quite,
entirely unlike English.

If you haven't had the pleasure, these things can very nearly be
generated by a suitably modified version of Eliza. Unfortunately, the IQ
of the author converges on the IQ of Eliza as the documents approach
completion.

Good process is designed to support results. Bad process is designed to
support checking boxes. MIL-STD-498 actually isn't a bad process, but
it's a process that was designed for very large software, and
"customization" only goes so far with this type of thing.

One reason for the triumph of COTS software acquisition is that COTS
developers ignore these sorts of documentation and process standards
entirely. This gives them at least a factor of five advantage in cost,
at the loss of any hope of detailed acquirer accountability or
facilitation of large-scale system integrations.

shap