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Comment by emodendroket | Hacker News Reader

So basically all our problems will go away if we return to UML and requirements documentation that's hundreds of pages long and edited for ages before anyone writes any code.

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No. Have a look at this video. It's worth it. He's just saying that you should think before you code and that most specifications should be just a few sentences stating what you intend to do. Code as a blueprint is not the same.

https://youtu.be/-4Yp3j_jk8Q

> So basically all our problems will go away if we return to UML

UML belongs to the class of semiformal models. In other words: It leads people into believing that a lot more things are precisely specified than actually are.

That sort of development practice has a much closer relation to engineering than current practice does: it's just that it's extremes are on the other end of that one.

The difference is that engineering has to get it right the first time. There is no second try. Most software isn't like that. It gets continually updated and maintained over several years after the initial release.

Thats how most Medical Device software is written :)

Fair enough but it's hardly a panacea. I think it likely does work better with something like that where the requirements are truly well understood, though. Most of this "agile" stuff is working around people not being able to tell you what the hell they want.

I was intern at a company that writes medical software and software for medical devices. I tell you: The usual standards are mostly bureaucracy and rather worthless in that they change anything about development practice.

I also had a nice private talk with a person who worked in software development for avionics at some very well-known company. Before I talked to him, I thought that at least there the development practices are better. After that I seriously ask why there are not serious accidents about everyday and how the plane even comes off ground. :-(

TLDR: Dream on... :-(

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