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I agree with almost all of your points, with the possible exception of having a complete set of requirements before starting the design.
Some of the requirements may not be apparent until you have already done part of the design. For example, the original design might have envisioned reading certain personal information from a public database, and immediately discarding it after use. Due to responsiveness and/or reliability constraints, it turned out to be necessary to keep a local cache of this personal information in a local database. This requires following the legal requirements for databases that store personal information, which is a whole new kettle of fish.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Daniel Pfeffer wrote: with the possible exception of having a complete set of requirements before starting the design.
Yes, I agree. I'll edit the post. 
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I'm of the camp that you start off simple and write a clean implementation, performance will not be a problem.
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One approach we've used in the past is the Pugh Matrix, which makes sure that all parties are heard, and that all criteria are taken into consideration.
The Wikipedia post for this Pugh Matrix is somewhat incomplete, and I find better references online.
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Hear! Hear!
And keep me from punching they who respond to new projects with, "ooh, this would be a good opportunity to try out New Third-Party Product X which I read about in a blog this morning!"
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Performance goals should be in the requirements.
We're not talking about optimization here, but high level performance goals.
something like, for example :
When application is launched, it should be reactive in less than X seconds (could mean what initialization can be postponed later instead at startup)
or
3D rendering should be Y frames/seconds (could mean, how can we reduce the complexity of the model to achieve that goal ?)
I'd rather be phishing!
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I probably never had a single complete requirements...
That's why I add mine - and working web mostly, performance is one I always add...
I also does nothing until it is written in emails - even incomplete...
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
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Marc Clifton wrote: and if you need to bring in other technologies like AWS lambda, distributed computing, whatever, you can do so once there's evidence that you *need* to do so
In the case of AWS Lambda (or Azure Functions in my case) I prefer to use them unless I can't 
They're simple, easy, cheap and they scale automatically out of the box.
Many programmers are like "I use the right tool for the job", but when new tools come around they're like "it's just a fad so I'm sticking to what I know."
Even when these tools solve actual problems and gain popularity and maturity, a lot of these "right tool for the job" people refuse to work with new technologies.
I (think I) know of at least a few people here who just outright refuse to work with cloud or containers or even anything that isn't vanilla JS (or jQuery) and HTML.
A tool you know may be right for the job simply because you know it, but if something is gaining traction, like in this case serverless solutions, I'll sure as hell try them out if I think I've got something for it.
If I'd start "simple" with "what I know" on each new project I did I would still be writing giant WinForms monoliths in VB.NET 
I'm just saying there comes a time when you've got to try something new even when it *now* looks like the old would suffice.
That said, always wait for version 2
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 You would have run screaming from the Bank, the manager was forever proposing we use some *NEW* tech that he had read about or some sales person had put a flea in his ear about. Drove me nuts and eventually drove me out.
I have seen both the minimal spec project and the one where they attempt to spec every detail out before starting the development. I'm still ambivalent about which one is better.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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All the leds on my washing machine are blinking. According to the official dealer and an independent mechanic, the main board is faulty and needs replacing. Their prices were similar, but I'll come back to that in a bit.
Having replaced many parts in many different computers, one would expect a similar proces. Open the hood, unscrew motherboard, put in new one that you ordered from the site, and boot it. Since the washing machine lacks a display, we can safely assume that this new board does not come with a graphics adapter, soundadapter, integrated networks-adapter nor with large amounts of DDR3 RAM.
To my surprise, the price of the logic board was 60% of the total price of the new machine (current price, the exact type is still for sale today, so it is not like ordering hardware that's not available), and it is built in a way that a regular consumer cannot replace it easily. The logic board inside the washing machine sells for roughly 150 euro's - but you'd have to add an hourly rate and travel costs, and then it adds up to 60% of the new-price.
All the other hardware still works, it's just a faulty logic board. Still, the independent mechanic gave me the advice to "buy a new machine", since it makes more economic sense. Must have been working too much with computers as it makes no sense to me at all. It reeks of planned obsolecence; making it hard to repair and easy to break down, to limit the lifespan. Seek out their owners website, and you get marketing-texts like "environmental sustainability" and "fair trade"
The rest of the old machines hardware would be "recycled", meaning it probably[^] gets dumped somewhere in Africa. Very environmentally and fair. Having a kid burn the plastic of a copper wire is a form of recycling, and that's good for the environment.
Remember how some printers have an internal counter[^] after which they stop working? Same thing 
So, why don't we do that with software? After, say, a 4000 executions, simply stop the software and demand that the customer buys a complete new license. Let's add to that OriginalGriffs' headphone-economics - and sell new licenses only in packs of 20. And to top all that, include the words "fair trade" on your website.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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I didn't know Apple made washing machines.
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Sure. The iBleach.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Me thinks that was his point. 
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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Still is?
Was I argueing?
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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yes it is
and
not that i can tell
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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Darn, that IS inconvenient! 
I recently read about Airpods: AirPods Are a Tragedy - VICE[^]
The way I see it, they (and similar products) should be banned by law.
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Agreed 
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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If they made vacuum cleaners, they wouldn't suck.
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Eddy Vluggen wrote: After, say, a 4000 executions, simply stop the software and demand that the customer buys a complete new license
You obviously don't have that kind of customers who expect eternal premium service, just because they grabbed your software from a bargain bin at Walmart.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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CodeWraith wrote: You obviously don't have that kind of customers who expect eternal premium service, just because they grabbed your software from a bargain bin at Walmart.
One of the things you can get out of this story is that the company doesn't care about the customers expectations; only about it's perception.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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They will quickly change their perception as soon as they have some of the customers with torches and pitchforks at their door and/or a decent shitstorm in the internet.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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That's the idea of a free market, where those kind of companies are replaced by new "innovative" competitors. So where are they?
There's so many shitstorms on the internet, it would get snowed under. Nothing the marketing-department can't handle with a few well-placed ads.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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That has been the problem with shitstorms, even long before the internet. Nobody cares when it is just a shitbreeze.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Well a category 3 sh*t hurricane is a doozey until you experience a category 4 sh*t hurricane.
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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