Just Plain Horse (shoe) Sense

Often, arguments for iterative development focus on the "technology" involved in software development. We point to issues like R&D content, the imprecision of requirements, architectural risk, performance risk, integration risk, and so on, to justify developing iteratively.

What Roscoe showed me was that iterative development makes good sense from a general project management perspective. And in particular, certain characteristics peculiar to software development amplify the benefits of short vectors, risk targeting, and applied learning. So what makes good sense in general makes even better sense when the project involves software development. Furthermore, intelligent staffing during early iterations ensures that, even if you cancel it, a software development project does not need to incur significant financial losses.

As Roscoe put it, stubbing out his stogie and swinging his feet up onto the porch railing, "If it makes sense from the technology point of view and it makes sense from the business point of view, it makes sense to me."