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0 pointsTeMPOraL5y ago0 comments

Also because planning gets you to make your desires explicit and to put them in a useful framework. Unexpected problems, disruptive as they may be, don't usually derail the whole plan. Some parts may need to be rethought, but others are still valid, and the whole thing keeps you focused.

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galaxyLogic5y ago· 2 in thread

Programming is isomorphic to theorem proving (according to Curry-Howard).

Therefore trying to estimate a software project is a bit like trying to estimate how long it will take to prove a new theorem in mathematics, assuming you would know which exact theorem you want to prove.

garethrowlands5y ago

Er, isn't it just getting your program to typecheck that's equivalent to proving the theorem (by construction)?

I tend to find this isn't the main consumer of my software budget :-)

galaxyLogic5y ago

In a way I think yes but just getting the type-check right would be like proving ANY mathematical theorem. It is very easy to prove mathematical theorems if you don't care what those theorems are.

The challenge in mathematics, and programming, I believe, is what ("lemmas") to prove so that you can then prove more things that are useful for engineering, science, etc. . What functions to write in your program so that you can get its "main function" to do something useful.

Add to that the fact that much of the "type-checking" with current practical programming languages still has to be done informally, to describe what we expect of the result and then prove (to yourself and the client) that the program does that.

A lot of the thought-process that goes on in programmers' heads is informal reasoning proving things to yourself, "If I make this change here then that thing there must have a correct value, and then ..."

ethbr05y ago· 1 in thread

There was a submission on this (in the annals of HN) where someone made the point that, more often than not and under normal project scenarios, unexpected problems usually do derail the entire software engineering plan.

The gist being: estimates are given with zero as a lower bound, and some upper bound. In reality, there is no upper bound. Software engineering can and does involve unexpected problems that would take infinite time to solve.

Ergo, project timelines are more accurately averaged between {min_time} and {infinite}, and, given that, remaining risk is the only true metric that should be reported. I.e. how far are we along in terms of project completed, such that we can say only x% of the project remains, and therefore that 1-x% did not explode.

imtringued5y ago

The fundamental problem with estimates is that the recipient believes that the estimate will always turn out to be true, which is obviously not correct.

So, why can't we express the upper bound in combination with uncertainty?

Example: "There is a 50% chance that the feature will be delivered within 1 month."

As time progresses confidence starts increasing and we get closer and closer to how much time it actually takes (be that 5 days, 5 months or 5 years). On the day the feature is completed, confidence is 100% because the real delivery date has become known.

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