Visiting the Montana State Museum of the Rockies this weekend and came across this sign in an exhibit.
Now writing software for money is not this kind of science, but it is closely related to engineering and the enablement of engineering processes in our domain - things that fly away, swim away, drive away, and the enterprise IT systems that support those outcomes.
When we hear about some new way to do something around managing projects that spend other peoples money, we do need to ask the questions posed by the sign above.
Is there any evidence that the suggested way - this new alternative of doing something - has the desired outcomes?
No? Then it's going to be difficult for those of us working in a domain that provides mission critical solutions - ERP, embedded software, infrastructure that other systems depend on - to know how to assess those suggestions.
The process of asking and answering a question like that is found in the Governance paradigm. Since our role is to be stewards of our customer's money in the delivery of value in exchange for that money, it's a legitimate question and deserves a legitimate answer. Without an answer, or at least and answer than can be tested outside the personal anecdotal experience of the proposer, it tends to be unsubstantiated opinion.
