SPUG: PERL technical interview

[Peter Darley]

Folks,
	I gotta go with Correct first every time.  Nobody cares how fast or stable
a calculator is if it gives you 2+2=4345 or an email client is if it sends
email to the wrong address.
Thanks,
Peter Darley

-----Original Message-----
From: spug-list-bounces at pm.org [mailto:spug-list-bounces at pm.org]On
Behalf Of Randy Rue
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 9:30 AM
To: spug-list at pm.org
Subject: Re: SPUG: PERL technical interview


Great question, and of course the short answer is "It depends."

Years before I ever heard the project management term "triple
constraint" a contractor friend of mine (contractor like hammer and
nails and a white pickup truck, not like dev-for-hire) asked me if I
wanted the job done "fast, cheap, or right, pick any two." I've never
heard the concept explained better since.

So the answer to "which comes first" depends on the situation and the
priorities of the consumer. Is this app a heavy resource user? Tune it.
Is it expected to be in use for a long time and maintained by baboons?
Make it correct, avoid cryptic shortcuts, and comment the bejeezus out
of it. Are we all fired if it's not running by noon? Fix it now!

Assuming no constraints? Make it correct, even if it means getting not
it working as quickly. Get it working. Then see about tuning it.

My unsolicited $0.02.

Randy Rue