There is a good book on this problem called "AntiPatterns: Refactoring Software, Architectures, and Projects in Crisis" by William J. Brown, Raphael C. Malveau, Hays W. Skip McCormick, Thomas J. Mowbray. The book contains Design Antipatterns, which are templates for project failure, including diagnostics and repair strategies. This is a fun book!

As a project member, there are many ways to respond to poor management decisions. An unfortunate but common response is to perform poorly in the assignment. "If it is not worth doing, it is not worth doing well."

Another response is "passive noncompliance." That's when you say, "sure, we are using Story Server" and instead you use mod_perl.

If you are a technical leader, you should work hard to avoid inappropriate tops-down technical "solutions." This is a very old problem. My attempts to avoid this problem are inspired by Benedict de Spinoza's Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect. This is available at Project Gutenberg and elsewhere. This is not as much fun as design antipatterns, but it provides deep insights into the elements of a compelling technical argument.

Update:Added link to Antipatterns book

It should work perfectly the first time! - toma

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.