NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/comp/software/4374

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-18 | 2.5 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!ogicse!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!menudo.uh.edu!sugar!claird
From: [e-mail] (Cameron Laird)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Making lemonade (was: SE going offshore?)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 18 Nov 92 16:18:20 GMT
Article-I.D.: NeoSoft.Bxx6Mp.C0w
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- [phone]
Lines: 48

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Rob Hasker) writes:
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>How well the person understands English isn't really the whole issue.
>You also need to understand a lot of the culture before you can really
>understand the client, and a good understanding of English doesn't
>imply a complete understanding of culture.  On an exam, I once had
>students draw an entity-relationship diagram which contained "caboose"
>and "motor." Hardly any of the Asian students knew what a caboose was
>(probably not suprisingly), and most thought "motor" meant "motor car"
>(this did surprise me).  I can see such cultural differences causing a
>number of problems.  Of course, formal specifications would probably
>lessen the number of such problems, so we can't assume that all
>software for people in the US has to be written in the West.
Certainly there will be a number of problems.
As you note, "formal specifications would"
change the situation some.  My prediction:
in a quarter of a century, some Harvard scholar
will be explaining to us why such cultural dif-
ferences were a positive *advantage* to India,
Singapore, Indonesia, Lithuania, ...  The suc-
cessful software sites in those places will
have to approach their work in a different way,
and at least some of them will find a different
way that *works*.

One thing that's important to remember about
business:  success does *not* mean answering
all questions; it means answering a few, but
*well*.  Japanese car manufacturers still haven't
proved they can make a better Camaro than GM
(let's say), but who cares?  The big winners are
the ones who change the rules of the game.  This
is, by the way, what I'm trying to say in the
thread on Software Factories.  Mr. Lamaster
(spelling?) is right in all the facts he reports,
but I believe he neglects Mr. McGregor's (spelling?)
point that the nature of programming will change as
more power moves out to end-users.
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Cameron Laird
[e-mail] ([e-mail])    [phone]
[e-mail] ([e-mail])      [phone]