What is the “Mythical Man Month”

Well, there is a book out there explaining it.
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition)
Though a great source, it’s one dry read.

I actually recommend the cliff notes.

The basic gist is this:

If a developer gives an estimate for a project that might take 320 hours or “2 Man Months.” Some might think 2 developers can complete the same task in half the time. 

This might work in a manufacturing world, but not so well in a software world because of two factors, partitioning and communication to maintain the partitions.

The reality of the matter is, software depends on other software. Some things can’t be independently partitioned. When they can’t, developers must constantly communicate to make sure their pieces will work together. This communication takes additional time.  The more developers you add, the more communication you need, and therefore the more time you’ll have to spend.

There is a “sweet spot,” but unfortunately, there isn’t a perfect way to calculate it. When writing software, every project is different.

-Justin Kohnen

For a better explanation I encourage you to read the book, or at least the cliff notes.

If you’re a technology startup and need a FREE* MSDN Subscription, you should look into BizSpark

I signed up and I’m loving every minute of of it. Once Kohnen Solutions was approved we received a retail MSDN Subscription. (Which contains any piece of Microsoft software I could ever need to get my company going. Operating Systems, Databases, Blend, Visual Studio Team System Team Suite (VSTS), the list goes on)

You’ve got to first be eligible. Are you:

• Actively engaged in development of a software-based product or service that will form a core piece of its current or intended business
• Privately held
• In business for less than 3 years
• Less than US $1 million in annual revenue

If you meet all of the above you might be eligible for BizSpark.

But software’s not the only thing, you get access to the Developer Network, 2 Technical Support Incidents, Discounts from Third Party Providers (I’m constantly getting snail mail discount offers), and so much more.

To sweeten the deal, you even get a certain level of access to Windows Azure

*Free for a while at least. When you leave the program you have to pay a fee of $100. (Hell, that definitely beats $10,939 if you buy it new. IMHO, BizSpark is worth it.)

 

Software Development Trueisms

A co-worker sent these to me, and I thought they were hilarious and instead of spamming people I thought I would post about it.

• Walking on water and developing software from a specification are easy if both are frozen.
• Program complexity grows until it exceeds the capability of the programmer who must maintain it.
• Users don’t know what they really want, but they will know when they see it…
• The degree of normality in a database is inversely proportional to that of its DBA.
• If you work on a program long enough, it will eventually send E-mail.
• Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.
• If you want software made you have 3 options: You can have it done FAST, you can have it done RIGHT, You can have it done CHEAP. Pick 2.