Re: Cash Transactions Banned by Louisiana: Government Takes Private Property Without Due Process

"Keith F. Lynch" <kfl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

Bernard Peek <bap@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm not a developer but I have some experience of application
architecture so I can diagnose some system problems from the
type of errors they generate. Unfortunately some of the errors
in government systems are of the type that demonstrates that the
systems were wrongly specified, badly written and essentially
untestable. Architectural problems in major software systems
suggest to me that the customer (that's the civil-service, paid
for by us) doesn't have the necessary skills to design a piece of
software or to manage an external company to build it. What's more
the companies that do build it don't have the necessary skills to
identify poor designs or at least they don't employ them on their
biggest projects.

Unfortunately, it's not just governments. We're suffering from a
plague of bad software. I suspect it's mostly due to credentialism
run amok. Firms (and governments) hire programmers based on
credentials rather than based on proven ability to do the job
quickly, inexpensively, and correctly.

How *do* you prove the ability to do the job quickly, inexpensively, and
correctly? I've been in a lot of interviews, on both sides, and
sometimes gotten to watch the results for years afterwards, and it does
not appear to be a terribly reliable process.
.

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