DPC2019: Software Management Lessons from the 1960s - Larry Garfield

Discover timeless software management lessons from the 1960s with Larry Garfield, including iterative design and incremental personnel additions.

Key takeaways

Record a conference talk by Larry Garfield, which highlights lessons learned from software management in the 1960s.
Design top-down but implement iteratively; waterfall design did not work then, and it doesn’t work now.
Add people to a project at the same time can lead to conflict, so adding people in increments can help minimize this problem.
When trying to decide if a system needs to evolve, ask whether it makes sense to modify the code vs. throwing the code away.
Reuse and iteration in software development can reduce the likelihood of errors and make it more scalable.
Brooks (1964) said that adding complexity to a program by adding code will require the same time and money, but reusing components will not be more time-consuming.
Systems that work on different conceptual models do not interact well and therefore require distinct programming languages to communicate efficiently.
System integrity is key in software design.
A clear concept of the desired end system will save time, as less coding will be necessary for implementation.
Small, maintainable and modifiable systems require a great deal of upfront thinking and planning to get it right.
For any system of over 20 to 30 people working on it simultaneously, it is recommended to have many people work together in an agile manner.
Open source principles and collaboration will help in terms of code development and improvement, reusability, scalability, and better debugging.
People tend to spend most of their time in a very few places.

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