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Fred Brooks Quotes

Software Engineer

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Famous Fred Brooks Quotes

“The hardest single part of building a software system is deciding precisely what to build the most important function that software builders do for their clients is the iterative extraction and refinement of the product requirements. For the truth is, the clients do not know what they want. They usually do not know what questions must be answered, and they have almost never thought of the problem in the detail that must be specified.”

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“Observe that for the programmer, as for the chef, the urgency of the patron may govern the scheduled completion of the task, but it cannot govern the actual completion. An omelette, promised in two minutes, may appear to be progressing nicely. But when it has not set in two minutes, the customer has two choices - wait or eat it raw. Software customers have had the same choices.”

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“The first step toward the management of disease was replacement of demon theories and humours theories by the germ theory. That very step, the beginning of hope, in itself dashed all hopes of magical solutions. It told workers that progress would be made stepwise, at great effort, and that a persistent, unremitting care would have to be paid to a discipline of cleanliness. So it is with software engineering today.”

FirstsMadeWould BeCareTodayEffortStepsProgressHumourTheoryDisciplineDiseaseSolutionsPaidManagementWorkersDemonSoftwareEngineeringFirst StepsPersistentCleanlinessGermsReplacementsSoftware EngineeringGreat Effort
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“One can expect the human race to continue attempting systems just within or just beyond our reach; and software systems are perhaps the most intricate and complex of man's handiworks. The management of this complex craft will demand our best use of new languages and systems, our best adaptation of proven engineering management methods, liberal doses of common sense, and a God-given humility to recognize our fallibility and limitations.”

MenHumansUseLanguageGivenCommonRaceHumilityDemandManagementMethodComplexesCommon SenseCraftsLimitationHuman RaceSoftwareEngineeringProvenAdaptationAttemptingDoseIntricateFallibilityHandiwork
Author:Fred Brooks
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