Tearing Down the Software Factory
To quote the Tom DeMarco quote at the start:
The idea of a software factory is a joke–that we can build software by rote–that’s ridiculous. If the work is deterministic, we will do with it what we do with any other big piece of deterministic work. We’ll let the computer do the deterministic portion, leaving the person who interacts with the computer–the other half of the system–to do the work whose roteness has decreased, not increased. Every time you automate something, what’s left of the person’s work is less deterministic, until eventually, when you automate enough, there’s no deterministic element left for the person’s work–no rote. […] Our work is not deterministic. It’s far too inventive. We’re knowledge workers, not factory workers.