A principle, at last!

On musing over the last two entries that I have written I think I am on to something. So herewith may I introduce:

The Paulo Principle: You can't smell rotting software

What is rotting software? It is simply software that is no longer being maintained and developed properly. Software that has not yet reached the stage of abandonware, but is well on its way. Software that will require a great capital investment to come back to life.

But you can ask questions of anyone trying to sell you software, and you can conduct a proper due diligence on any software company who you are interested in purchasing. I am going to put on my thinking cap and see if I can work out a good set of questions for either situation. I will report back on this.

In the interim I have finished reading "Built to Last", and found it to be a most inspirational read. My thanks to Charles and Frans for the recommendation!

It introduced the concept of "Built to Flip". To me the idea of pulling together a great story, a crude implementation and then "Flipping" for instant reward would explain why people would be prepared to encourage the software products they are managing to "rot".  I am with Joel on this one though: "Good Software Takes Ten Years. Get Used To It."

9:36:10 PM