I write laws

I went through a business contract, analysing it for weaknesses. I found a not likely case, but still pointed it out.

“You should be a lawyer”, the lawyer says

“I write laws”, I reply.

Now why am I writing this?

Well, there are similarities to developing Laws and developing business systems. Laws are rules in which we humans can work within to achieve value. The value Laws strive for is the value of functional society, a functioning system.

Now developing business software can be viewed in the same way. When developing the software we state the laws in which the users can generate data. The UI is a constraint or law, the business rules are different kinds of laws, and so on. The value we strive for is correct business data, another kind of functioning system.

How it is to live under these governing systems i based on the values they are built upon. A Mac user have different values regarding usability, design, and in some cases “quality” – compared to a Windows user.

Developing software is a team effort. The development team are the legislators of the product they are developing, so which values are governing your software?