* * * * *
                                        
 Great! Future civilizations will come to the conclusion that Woody Woodpecker
                                destroyed ours.
                                        
> “What are you doing here?” they asked.
> 
> They were construction foremen, superintendents and project managers
> attending a course in construction planning from the Lean Construction
> Institute (LCI). Indeed, what was I doing there?
> 
> I started to explain: “In software development, we are told we should
> manage our projects like construction projects, where a building is
> designed at the start, cost and schedule are predictable, and customers get
> what they expect.”
> 
> Silence. “You're kidding, right?” “No, honest, that's what we're told.”
> 
> Incredulity turns to laughter. The idea that programmers would want to
> manage projects like the construction industry strikes my classmates as
> ludicrous.
> 

Via Flutterby [1], “Lean Construction [2]”

There's an old programming joke: “If builders built buildings the way
programmers write programs, the first woodpecker that came along would
destroy civilization.” It sounds like it may not be that much of a joke any
more … 

[1] http://www.flutterby.com/archives/comments/10357.html
[2] http://www.poppendieck.com/construction.htm

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

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