. The rapid pace of technological development and the advantages Americans enjoy in responding to these transitions drive this
change in outlook.
Begin by writing off commodity software. Yourdon's arguments in
Decline and Fall
about the threat of higher-quality software produced inexpensively in India and other nations still count, and
Rise and Resurrection
doesn't contradict them. But the new book notes that the impact of offshore competition is limited primarily to well-defined problems that require big programming teams but differ little from one implementation to the next. On these commodity jobs the overwhelming productivity advantages of offshore programmers compel customers to consider bypassing American coders.
It's beyond the commodities, writes Yourdon, where American developers can make up the difference: on fast-changing shrinkwrap software, on active Internet applications, on smart-home systems. The American programmer's greatest advantage is better access to the American software market, the world's largest. Better access means simple proximity to customers, but it also m
eans speaking the same language, familiarity with consumer technology, and knowledge of cultural preferences. In an era when customization and rapid response to customer demands are increasingly important, this is an overwhelming edge.
"Cowboy" culture, too, plays a role in Yourdon's optimism. He devotes a chapter to the topic of "good enough" software, where the number of defects is simply another trade-off to balance against delivery schedules and features lists. In Yourdon's view, the strategies required to implement a good-enough approach work better in America's individualistic, "cowboy" culture than in cultures that are more comfortable with rigorous top-down control.
Although
Rise and Resurrection
outlines these advantages, this is more a book about how American programmers can succeed than one about why they will. Yourdon describes process engineering strategies for today's turbulent environment, where layoffs are commonplace and corporate loyalty virtually nonexistent. Here, th
e emphasis is on individual improvement and on realizing the importance of talented team members. The author devotes a chapter to applying process models to one-person projects.
For American programmers, the message of this book is clear: Stay up-to-date and value innovation and talent. Yourdon's strategies can help to meet these goals.
Steve Apiki is a BYTE consulting editor and senior software developer at Apprpriate Solutions, Inc. You can contact him at
apiki@apsol.com
.
Book Review
