It depends on what you mean by ‘working’

Abstract

A recent American president, while under interrogation, responded to one question by saying his answer depended on “what you mean by `is'.” I feel the same way when I hear people claim that their development process is working even when delivery is late or excessive defects are reaching the customer. I want to ask how they know it is working or more exactly what they mean by that term. They typically fail to critically analyze the problems or to recognize that conditions they have come to accept can be improved.

Cite as:

John D. McGregor, “It depends on what you mean by ‘working’”, Journal of Object Technology, Volume 7, no. 1 (January 2008), pp. 7-15, doi:10.5381/jot.2008.7.1.c1.