by Scott Andersen
Architects, Ethics and more Dilemmas
There are times in life when in fact the mistakes we make don’t impact us. There are times when the mistakes almost drown out the good things we do. It’s the reality we live in.
Last week I posted two “software architect” as advisor dilemmas. I got a lot of email about the fact that the dilemmas had nothing to do with software architecture and more to do with the software architect as a person.
At first I was taken aback by the emails. Personally I don’t draw that distinction. The software architect is both a professional and an individual. The two are components of what that architect is as a person and as a software architect.
Once I put those arguments away I did notice that not many people took a swing at the interaction questions. Take a look, take a swing. How would you advise that administrator?
Dilemma 3:
· In gathering the requirements for the solution you discover that one of the requirements ultimately will drive the cost of the solution to twice or even three times as much. What should you do?
o This is critical functionality for the application what do you do?
o This is important functionality for the solution what should you do?
o This is nice to have functionality what should you do?
Dilemma 4:
· You find a minor bug in the code being developed for your solution. You evaluate the bug compared to the requirements and goals of the project and you declare the bug as a by design component thus removing it from the bug list and not building a fix for the problem.
· Lastly its discovered that a new component of the solution crashes because of that original bug. Do you reveal that in fact you knew about that bug before?
o Would you reveal it if it cost you your job?
o Would you reveal it if it cost the developer his or her job?
Feel free to comment or email me with your thoughts. It’s always harder when you talk about things that impact what you are doing.