[log in to unmask] wrote:
> How many of us have worked with these hackers who run out and do all the fun
> coding only to leave the project when the boring paperwork has to be done?

Agree.  Or how about all that boring work to make the system work right,
exactly right, in every case, without crashing.

It's not nearly as easy and fun as dummying up something that will
look OK 80% of the time, and your average "hacker donna" gets the hell
out of town when this effort starts -- or winds up boosting your cost
by some unpredictable (but generally large) amount.

There are two reasons why we seldom hear horror stories about cost
overruns on poorly-defined, commercial-quality projects:

1. They aren't considered horrors, a 30-50% overrun is normal.

2. Many of them don't overrun, they just fail.  If there was no
external customer, there's nobody to tell about it -- the company
that failed will certainly not issue a press release.

Best,
Sam Mize

--
Samuel Mize -- [log in to unmask] (home email) -- Team Ada
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