[ale] [OT] AJC Article on State Welfare System

[Stuffed Crust]

On Mon, Aug 26, 2002 at 09:39:33PM -0400, Jeff Hubbs wrote:
> So what would make a fifth attempt any different?  If "sorting out the
> requirements" is intractable, then no progress will be made if you
> insist that requirements must be sorted out before actually creating
> anything.   

Yup, and that's why the creaky wheels are still squeaking around in
circles over at the goldwn dome downtown.

> When I was talking about the Web-app/green-screen issue, I was talking
> about a lot more than just UI.  I was talking about what kind of
> components (Web server vs. app session server), connectivity (Internet
> vs. modem server), and what kind of expertise might be required (Web
> coder or "Zopatista" vs. language-of-choice-plus-ncurses, for example). 

Yup.  And that decision depends on the core requiremnts.  Are case
workers expected to be mobile?  What kind of communication between the
centers is necessary?  Do we want all of the records centrally stored,
or will each office keep its own, with links to the other offices?

What about security concerns?  What kind of access controls?
Administrative procedures?
 
> If the goal is to create what XPers call a "spike solution," then what
> you did along the lines of inventing requirements might be all there is
> to go on.  A spike solution that fully and completely addresses some
> arbitrarily-drawn requirements is better than having no solution at all
> because you're awaiting requirements that never come.   

Rapid prototyping and a very short feedback cycle is one thing I really
liked about XP.    But why spike when you can mock?   Hell, show 'em
advogato or some other random blog site; that has a lot of (IMO) similar
functionality, given that all we really have to go on ATM is that we
need a generic database of sorts.  :)

> like 1) by what means are the users *able* to access such an app?  2)
> *Who* are the users anyway?  

1) is larely irrelevant at this point.  2) is considerably more
critical.  But even that pales compared to 3) what is this project
actually trying to solve?

Simply "computerizing" the entire system won't work, because if a case
worker is going to lie about seeing a kid, they can do that just as
easily in front of a web browser as they could a typewriter.  

Which leads me to the principle of XP that I like the most: YAGNI, or Ya
Ain't Gonna Need It, also known as "Never put off to tomorrow what you
can put off indefinately" Until the State gets their proverbial house in
order and gets a set of procedures and/or requirements in place that can
be translated into a computer system, it's not worth writing any code.

Or in XP speak, they need to hand us a stack of stories.  then we sit
down and crank out estimates, they then prioritize everything, and we
dig in and start craking out steaming heaps of code.

But hey, who am I kidding.  That's not how breaucracies work, and the
govenrment is the end-all of breaucracies.  :)

 - Pizza
-- 
Solomon Peachy                                   pizza at f*cktheusers.org
I'm not broke, but I'm badly bent.                         ICQ #1318344
Patience comes to those who wait.                         Melbourne, FL
               Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur

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