Freakoversion
In order to become better at selling “doing the right thing” to management, I think we need hard evidence. Therefore, I’m very curious what would happen if you put a really good researcher on digging through the version control system for your product. Combined with bug trackers, continuous integration systems, and other related systems, I think it is a virtual goldmine.
You can finally get number of how much that “technical debt” really is. How much an average bug cost? How long does it on average take until a bug is discovered? Until it is fixed? How much did that quick and dirty patch a year ago really cost? Add to that all the technical value you could get out of such an analysis. What modules/classes have had the most bugs, historically? What classes are unstable and has to be changed all the time?
Think of it as a Freakonomics of version control.
It’s probable that hard evidence can be a good factor in convincing management. On the other hand you could go by “If you can’t prove it, fake it”. As in algoritms, transform your problem from one problem space to an other and show (hide) what you want to do in the view of a related problem. Off course with all the good benefits that comes from solving that problem. Ingmar Stenmark once said somthing like (translated from Swedish) “It’s not easy to explain for those who doesn’t understand”.
Mr T - May 24th, 2010 at 01:07