[thelist] Enterprise Red Tape was: Web Based Employee Directory- prt 2

Ken Chase raskenbo at fastmail.fm
Thu Sep 16 07:45:02 CDT 2004


On Thu, 16 Sep 2004 13:35:22 +1000, "Ken Schaefer"
<ken.schaefer at gmail.com> said:

> On Wed, 15 Sep 2004 14:39:41 -0500, Luther, Ron <ron.luther at hp.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > (I'm not saying it's 'a bad thing" ... maybe code re-use works better in a
> > very specialized industry, like oil, where you might have a very complex
> > equation that you could code once and call from multiple sources ... I just
> > think the benefits of code re-use have been severely oversold.)
> 
> <sarcasm level="extreme">
> Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more . I was thinking about how a
> modern OS works.
> 
> For example, most OSes have a central set of components for managing
> printing. Each user application uses a central interface to print, and
> each printer manufacturer supplies a printer driver.
> 
> It would be much better if each application vendor supplied their own
> print manager! And each printer manufacturer had to supply a driver
> that worked specifically with the print manager of the application!
> You'd need a print driver for Word, another for Mozilla, and a 3rd for
> Photoshop. Imagine trying to buy a printer!

<snip>

OK Ken, you've made your point, and a good one at that. However, what I
got out of Ron's message was that technology is not the core competency
of most companies. If a company developing OS's doesn't find
efficiencies in OS development, they'll be out of business. So this will
be a priority for them.

If the chef at the local five star restaurant (to use a silly analogy)
isn't efficient at applying "code re-use" to the in-house inventory
management system that he's developing in his spare time, it's still
business as usual.

As I've said in previous posts (sort of), the "model" isn't bad, the way
that it's implemented is.

Programming is a miniscule part of what the organization I work for
does. I think what it might boil down to in my organization, and others
I'm sure, is the following:

1. Outsource what we can't do well
2. Have a more "technical" director implement a strategy for "code
development"
3. Improve staff recruitment and retention

It's simple really, as most things are.

respect,
kenbo


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