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The Nature of Software and the Laws of Software Process
The Second Law of Software Process
(see also The Rule of Process Bifurcation)
We can only define software processes at two levels: too vague or too
confining.
Explanation and Observations
This is a direct consequence of having to deal with both 0OI/1OI and
2OI/3OI at the same time. The anecdote I related concerning creating pro-
cess for my airline employer illustrates this exactly: the first process defi-
nition activity for the airline fell into the “too confining” category. Learning
from that, our second effort was promptly deemed “too vague.”
Processes always tend to be too vague for those things we know exactly
how to do. In fact, not only should the process tell us exactly what to do,