Ty Sarna wrote:
> Not that other companies are just as bad.  Canon is, plus there's the
> language barrier.  And I know of one large-sales-volume HP product where
> there are no engineering documents at all.  The entirety of the
> company's undertsanding of the software and hardware of the system is
> contained in the grey matter of probably a half dozen people.  What
> happens if these half dozen people all go out to lunch together and get
> hit by a runaway bus or something, I don't know.  (Or just all leave the
> company at once, for that matter.) Reverse engineer their own product?
> Scrap it and tell existing customers "sorry"? I expect that from small
> companies, who usually have no choice (I mean, if we lost half a dozen
> people, that'd be more than the entire company :->), but HP should be
> able to do better.  They should know better, too...  the project manager
> didn't seem to think this was a problem.  Desesiring internal
> documentation of a project but not being able to afford to do it right
> is one thing.  In these days of downsizing, reducing overhead, etc,
> there are business realities to contend with.  But failing to see even
> the point of *any* internal documentation is just completely...  <words
> fail me>. 

*Chuckle* Oh, I have a better one than that! A Japanese company risking
a billion (OZ) dollars without actually ever working out what they're
building. 8 months overdue. No requirements docs, no design docs, almost
100% contractors all there at an hourly rate. No accountability. Everyone
goes off and does what ever they want. Every new guy coming in, trashes
what the previous guy did. And management doesn't want to know. Even
pending liquidated damages doesn't make them understand what is or is not
happening. So they run out of money and go back to Japan for a hand-out.
Then the Japs arrive and the project is like an occupied nation, but
of course they're "only there to help". One of the software programmers
takes to physical intimidation because he doesn't like having his software
reviewed. And they wonder why someone quits! Doh, words fail me too.

When I can find the words, I'm going to write a comedy series for TV and
make so much money that I'll be able to afford to pay them when they sue
me. Ho, ho, ho...

Regards,

-- 
John Birrell - jb@cimlogic.com.au; jb@netbsd.org; jb@freebsd.org
CIMlogic Pty Ltd, GPO Box 117A, Melbourne Vic 3001, Australia +61 418 353 137