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I suspect that the situation Scott describes - banks
not documenting their software - will create a demand
for certified technical writers in the coming years.
:-P One of these companies will get hacked, my
identity and that of millions of others will be
stolen, we'll all sue, there may be legal
repercussions, etc. The company may well go bankrupt
as a result.
Some police or government committee (is there a
difference?) will investigate and discover that
managers had been flying by the seat of their pants,
and did not put in place reasonable safeguards, such
as documenting software, proper testing, etc.
There will be a brief increase in emphasis in MBA
courses on good business process, but, like the
classes on business ethics, will be wasted. In large
organizations, the documentation department will
increase momentarily in importance, then managers will
remember that good business processes and
documentation contribute only to long-term viability,
and that concept is so yesterday, to quote Hilary
Duff. On the bright side, there will be more jobs for
tech writers, and some may even be recognized for the
process development work we do.
Some years ago, I worked for a major credit card/etc.
company that did document their internal software
very, very thoroughly. However, they still struggle
with market share because of other business practices.
There is no one "right" way to do things that works,
but putting dollars before customer security is always
the wrong way.
All the best,
Brian
--- quills -at- airmail -dot- net wrote:
> Banks/financial institutions follow the Agile
> philosophy, mostly because
> of time to market pressures and because they don't
> understand that their
> sevices are technology driven. Thusly they have
> become software houses in
> their own right.
>
> Nothing to worry about right? Wrong. I know from a 3
> year stint in one
> major credit card processing company (name with held
> to protect me from
> legal actions) that they do not bother to document
> the system, the system
> operation or the accumulated changes to their
> processes. They don't
> document the overal system processes and software,
> the operational
> departments don't document their individual
> processes and software, and no
> one has a handle on it.
>
> So how do you really want your money spent and your
> credit taken care of?
> The Agile way, or the old rigourous way?
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