By V.V.S.Raveendra

The book "Who moved my cheese?" is wonderful. It talks about change and adaptation to it. In conveys the message in a simple way through a short story. After reading the book I started thinking of changes in software engineering and how we adapt. Instead of writing a review of the book, I thought it would be better to share some of my thoughts on changes in software engineering.

In the start up phase of a development project we get requirements specification from clients. During analysis phase when we seek clarifications from business users, the answers turn out to be changes to requirements! This is when our classic Change Request appears!

A customer begins his e-business with an application based on 3-tier architecture with browser based front end (user interface), an application server (business layer) and a database (data layer). After some time SMS (Short Messaging Service) and WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) become order of the day. To adapt to such a change, we architect applications so that the business layer is independent of user interface.

We talk about Design Patterns. Take for example separation of implementation and interface. The idea of interface came to conveniently change implementation, without affecting the programs using the interface.

We develop applications and products for various lines of business by using different technologies. The businesses change with respect to time and space. Each project is a new experience. We adapt and strive for excellence.

We handle software development and maintenance. At the time of development we create new application to automate business processes. During maintenance we change the application to adapt to the changes in business. After some time, we find that the application can’t easily be adapted to the changes in business. That is when we discard the old one and do redevelopment.

Let us look at Quality. We have Technology Change Management and Process Change Management in SEI CMM Level5. We manage these changes implies that we are adaptive!

The book is simple and thought provoking. It is a small book of less than 100 pages. However, it does not talk about ‘rate of change’ and ‘sudden change’. As a saying goes ‘change is the only constant in life’.

Feb 2002