JargonFile/entries/creationism.txt

13 lines
620 B
Plaintext
Raw Normal View History

2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
creationism
2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
n. The (false) belief that large, innovative software designs can be
completely specified in advance and then painlessly magicked out of the void
by the normal efforts of a team of normally talented programmers. In fact,
experience has shown repeatedly that good designs arise only from
evolutionary, exploratory interaction between one (or at most a small
handful of) exceptionally able designer(s) and an active user population and
that the first try at a big new idea is always wrong. Unfortunately, because
these truths don't fit the planning models beloved of management , they are
generally ignored.