Archeological Dig

Posted by Uncle Bob on 11/11/2009

I was going through some old files today, and I stumbled upon some acetate slides from 1995. They were entitled: “Managing OO Projects”. Wow! What a difference fifteen years makes! (Or does it?) ...

In 1995-99 I was frequently asked to speak to managers about what a transition to OO (usually from C to C++) would do for (or to) them. I would spend a half day to a day going over the issues, costs, and benefits.

One part of that talk (usually about 90 min) was a discussion about software process. It was the process part of the talk that those acetate slides that I found described.

1995 was during the ascendency of Waterfall. Waterfall thinking was king. RUP had not yet been conceived as an acronym. And though Booch was beating the drum for incrementalism, most people (even many within Rational) were thinking in terms of six to eighteen month waterfalls.

So, here are the slides that I uncovered deep within an old filing cabinet. I scanned them in. They were produced on a Macintosh using the old “More” program. (Where is that program now? It was so good.)

Go ahead and read them now. Then come back here and continue…

What struck me about those slides was the consistency of the message with today. It was all about iterative development. Small iterations (though I never deigned to define the length in the slides, I frequently told people 2 weeks), measured results, etc. etc. Any Agile evangelist could use those slides today. He or she would have to dance quickly around a few statements, but overall the message has not shifted very much.

What’s even more interesting is the coupling between the process, and OO. The slides talk a lot about dependency management and dependency structure. There are hints of the SOLID principles contained in those slides. (Indeed several of the principles had already been identified by that time.) This coupling between process and software structure was a harbinger of the current craftsmanship/clean-code movement.

Of course the one glaring omission from these slides is TDD. That makes me think that TDD was the true catalyst of change, and the bridge that conveyed our industry from then to now.

Anyway, I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Comments please!

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