What's the most complex thing about software development?

What's the most complex thing about software development?

Interesting question.

So far, on Quora.com, there have been four excellent answers to this question: discussing 

- the confusing role of people, 

-the requirements problems,

-the interactions with the physical world.

Each of these factors certainly makes software development more complex, and processes such as Agile are designed to cope with this complexity. But, the ultimate complexity factor is software testing.

Why testing? In the software development literature, testing is not usually treated as a glamorous part of development, but when we're testing, we're up against the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which warns us that perfection is ultimately unobtainable.

So, even if we absolutely knew all the requirements (which we can't, of course), kept all the human factors under control (also impossible), and knew exactly all the physical properties of the real world (once more, impossible), we would still never be able to perform the infinite number of tests to cover all possible situations.

In other words, the software could still surprise us at any time. That's what I call complexity.

Of course, we can still work hard to solve these other problems. On requirements, for instance, see our Exploring Requirements books.

But no matter how hard you try, you'll still be faced with the testing problem. To understand this problem and what you can do to reduce (but not eliminate) it, take a look at Perfect Software and Other Illusions about Testing.

Leaders: Born or Made?

The question was asked: "What's the best way to explain the phrase 'leaders are born not made'?"

That's easy. The best explanation is that it’s pure bunk, not supported by any evidence whatsoever.

But if it’s bunk, why do people repeat it? Perhaps they are making an excuse for not being a leader themselves, and not doing anything about it.

If they did want to do something about it, they could find many resources to help them grow into a better leader. My own contributions include:

Becoming a Technical Leader

and

Do You Want To Be a (Better) Manager?

But I'm not the only leadership coach. You have many choices, so if  you catch yourself arguing that leaders are born not made, stop making excuses. 

If you want to stop making excuses and start making a leader out of yourself, find yourself a collection of coaches and get busy with the making. 

improve my coding skills?

The questioner wrote, "Besides practicing, what else can I do to improve my coding skills?"

I took up the challenge with a warning:

Be careful of practice, because if that’s all you do, you’ll just be reinforcing your bad habits.

Instead, read and understand the coding of others. Reviewing code is the fastest way to improve your own code. If the reviewed code is well done, you learn good techniques. If it’s badly done, you learn what things to avoid.

If you’re on an Agile team, reviewing the code of others will be a natural part of your work, and you’ll also learn from others’ reviews of your work.

In any case, one of the very best ways to read and understand the code of others is by participating in software testing. By testing, you learn what really works and what really causes trouble.

And, of course, you should always take the opportunity not just to study code, but to watch others actually producing that code. What tools do they use? How do they use them? What’s their thinking process? What do they read to learn?

Finally, read some good books about thinking, reviewing, and learning. I’ve written some, and my own books refer to others. (http://www.geraldmweinberg.com)