In message , Stevenson, Brad writes: > Currently our procedures require that I submit tenative flowcharts or > pseudo-code to be approved before I cut any code. I use a product > definition given to me by my supervisor to base these flowcharts on. > > That's the way I supposed to happen. In a world of "I need it > yesterday" it's sometimes hard to find the time to do things the way > they should be done. Here's my advice to anyone that finds that inappropriate procedures are bogging down their ability to develop the best product. Tell the suits (defined as paper pushers without technical know-how -- I've got nothing against any particular style of clothing, I wear a suit myself :-) that the procedure that they are pushing applies only to traditional two-phase or waterfall development models, whereas you are employing Rapid Application Development / Rapid Prototyping in order to gain your company the greatest market advantage, and that therefore *you* will document the design as you go along. It's worth doing just to see the expression on their faces ... :-) [This assumes that you're a competent software engineer, as in the hands of a novice it's a recipe for disaster. However, a novice wouldn't get away with it, whereas if you're good and of recognized value to the company then the suits'll just go away and sulk. :-)] Rich. -- Existing media are so disconnected from reality that our policy debates spin around a fantasy world in which the future looks far too much like the past. http://nano.xerox.com/nanotech/MITtecRvwSmlWrld/article.html