[tlug] Issuses posed by code reuse

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Nguyễn Vũ Hưng writes:

 > I love [The Mythical Man-Month] but unfortunately, I consider it a
 > good extreme case and does not have much practical use in today's
 > software engineering (at least for my work).

I'd have to disagree, at least for my work in open source.  The
projects I work with whose products are damn near bullet-proof (Python
and Mailman) have managed workflows with more or less formal
processes.  The projects that I work with that are fragile and a PITA
to reengage with if I just take a 6-month vacation (Emacsen ;-) have
fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants workflows, with everybody thinking they
are an architect.

It's not uncommon that if you're the *only* engineer on a product, or
it's you and a couple others who are always working together, and you
have good instincts for which boring scutwork is essential and which
can be dispensed with because you're a tiny "solution shop", you can
do without a defined workflow.  But anything more extensive, you're
storing up trouble for the future in my experience.

Regards,