Rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

How not to advertise software

"If programmers built planes" shows a team of engineers working to finish a plane in mid flight. A rather unfortunate metaphor. I thought it was a parody, but apparently EDS paid for this.




It's true that requirements change and software grows and evolves with business, but good programmers make sure it never has to fly with gaping holes in it's hull, or an untested undercarriage. The plane metaphor states the problem very well, but doesn't show how EDS think they can solve it. How do you write an exciting advert around ideas like test driven design, encapsulation and refactoring? Something I should think about, because they're ideas I need clients and my non-technical colleagues to understand and appreciate.