🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <ewright.725152125@convex.convex.com> ewright@convex.com (Edward V. Wright) writes:
>In <1992Dec23.114601.22583@ke4zv.uucp> gary@ke4zv.uucp (Gary Coffman) writes:
>
>>Of course the SR-71 was a black program funded by clandestine government
>>agencies to the tune of we don't know how many billions of dollars. 
>
>Well, we do know that Kelly Johnson had no more than 100 engineers
>working on the project.
>
>How many billions can 100 engineers manage to spend in just 18 months?

How many billions have you got? It takes almost no time at all to add
zeros to a check. Engineers can spend money faster than a woman with
a gold card in Saks if you let them.

>Like most government reformers, you refuse to recognize that
>the conditions you decry are the *results* of your reforms.  
>You simply ascribe the worsening conditions to the fact that
>your reforms have not been implemented thoroughly enough.

That's rich. Not only am I not a government reformer, I'm enough
of a practicing engineering manager to know that projects only come 
in on time and on budget when you've throughly done your homework 
and made allowances for the contingencies that always come up during
development. This has nothing to do with government, as incompetent
an exercise in mismanagement as I've ever seen. This has to do with 
sound engineering management of high risk development programs with 
real schedules and real budgets. Cutting corners up front on the
assumption that everything that works on paper will work in metal
usually bites you in the rear. How that affects your project's
schedule and budget depends entirely on how well you've planned
for such failures and how well you've developed alternative
strategies.

Gary

-- 
Gary Coffman KE4ZV          |    You make it,     | gatech!wa4mei!ke4zv!gary
Destructive Testing Systems |    we break it.     | uunet!rsiatl!ke4zv!gary
534 Shannon Way             |    Guaranteed!      | emory!kd4nc!ke4zv!gary      
Lawrenceville, GA 30244     |                     | emory!ke4zv!gary@gatech.edu