The Software Process Imprinting Dilemma
Filed Under Human Factors, Software Process
Coding Horror had an insanely great article on software imprinting and the baby duck syndrome. Go read it…I will wait…
The notion of software imprinting got me thinking if this was also true to software process. It is not uncommon to hear the old mantra “We have always done it this way” when it comes to departmental development practices.
I have seen instances of developers whose first jobs were to simply hack out code turn into horrible developers. On the other hand, I have seen developers have a crummy first job turn into TDD machines.
Are processes such as TDD, Continuous Integration, Agile, and SCRUM slow to be adopted due to software process imprinting?
Is it the case that some of us choose not to unlearn our first software process, or is it the inability to break the mold and adopt something better?
