[development] An alternative to common thinking in 5-> 6 migration

[Khalid Baheyeldin]

Marcel

You mentioned something more than once in two contexts: having requirements
and planning beforehand saves time in the long run, and your professor in a
quality course.

Let me point out again that this is open source and not a corporate
environment, and hence the difference. Basically everything we assumed about
how corporate shops work does not work at all, or not as well in open
source.

Several years ago, when I was with a corporation, we got a professor from
the top Canadian university to present on requirements. He made the point
that the more time you spend on requirements the less time you will spend on
implementation. As an aside, the same concept was being touted in the
business arena in the 80s as "the Japanese way" of management.

When I asked him how does this apply to open source, and the success it had
without this lengthy centralized planning. He did not have an answer.

Once you have hundreds and thousands of contributors who never met each
other, spread across the globe, each scratching their own (or their
client/employer's) itch, we have a new paradigm (yeah, another buzzword).
You have organized chaos.

This is also why Agile/Scrum is showing success, as opposed to the
traditional waterfall method tried and tested for more than half a century.

For us who came from a corporate, or those like you who are still in
academia, it may be hard to adjust at first. But once you "get it", it is a
wonderful thing to watch and join.

So, jump in and "Do". Write about it 6 and 12 months from now and see if you
have changed your mind, and what you learned.
-- 
Khalid M. Baheyeldin
2bits.com, Inc.
http://2bits.com
Drupal optimization, development, customization and consulting.
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. --  Edsger W.Dijkstra
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. --   Leonardo da Vinci
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