Kritiker des Modells der Softwareentwicklung als standardisierter Prozess sehen Software als "ausführbares Wissen", dass in einem kreativen Prozess hergestellt werden muss, und somit nicht standardisiert oder nicht ingenieurmäßig konzipiert werden kann. Bei der ingenieursmäßigen Erstellung von Software dreht sich zumeist alles um ein bestimmtes Vorgehensmodell, dass quasi als Leitfaden oder Projektplan zur Aufgabenverteilung und Zeitplanung dient. Auch macht sie die Dokumentation des Projektes einfacher, und verständlicher für den eventuellen Nutzer der Daten. Vor allem für Software, die schwer zu erstellen und zu warten ist, oder für die relativ viel Manpower aufgewendet werden muss, ist ein Entwicklungsplan hilfreich. Ein Entwicklungsplan unterteilt den Entwicklungsprozess in überschaubare, zeitlich und inhaltlich begrenzte Phasen. So kann die anfallende Arbeit Schritt für Schritt, in einen beliebigen Detaillierungsgrad unterteilt werden. Hierzu gibt es zwei verschiedene Arten von modelle: Zum einen das Wasserfallmodell, bei dem alle Prozesse nacheinander stattfinden, und zum Anderen das Spiralmodell, das vorsieht dass alle anfallenden Änderungen einer Software im Echtbetrieb stattfinden. Durch zielgerichtetes Vorgehen soll die Qualität des gesamten Systems gewahrt werden. Auch sind Ziele der Planung Personenunabhängigkeit und frühzeitige Fehlererkennung durch festgeschriebene Testaktivitäten.

Allerdings ist die Frage nach der optimalen Art und Weise der Erstellung von Software im Wesentlichem eine Philosophiefrage. Auf der anderen Seite steht das Argument, dass statische und eindimensionale Modelle haben wenig mit der Praxis zu tun haben. Softwareentwicklung sollte agil in einem kreativen Prozess mit minimaler Verwaltung stattfinden. Immerhin ist das Ziel der Projektplanung der Projekterfolg und nicht das Vorgehensmodell.

Hallo Leute,

 ich werde mir mal eine kreative Pause gönnen. Ihr hört demnächst von mir.

Stressed parents only know too well that in many cases, the energy of their children seems to be never exhausted. In many cases, the children are put in front of television if one wants to enjoy a few quiet hours. Unfortunately, the contents of many television broadcasts don’t seem to be very child-friendly although they where explicitly made for children. Violences scenes and senseless stories are shown in the kid’s program. Next to that, sitting sitting in front of television is not interactive, i.e. the program cannot be affected by the child, and thus can become rather boring after a while. Computer programs seem to be a bad alternative in this case. Only too often one is warned in the media of the dangers of the Internet. And also the discussions around so-called “killer games” emerges now and then in the media. But there are also completely different examples. Many computer games permit playing and investigating in a secured surrounding. In many cases, handling a teaching program can even reduce the fear of learning, since teaching programs are conceived such that they teach handling complex topics easily. Thus one kills two birds with one stone. The children are put calm, and at the same time, can one can enjoy the good feeling that they use their time very in a very valuable way.

Computer based learning permits children to spend the time at the computer in a particularly valuable manner. By handling e-learning software, the children first of all get used to using computer programmes, which becomes a more and more important skill in our computerized world. A second advantage is that complex issues can be represented in the form of text, pictures, tones, video and animation. Complex and large programs can be used, since one also can do without a direct stream. This helps particularly to promote the fun at learning already in the early childhood. Studies show that children, which learned to learn with joy are often more successful in later life than children, which did not learn to enjoy learning. One distinguishes pieces of learning software according to degrees of interactivity. In simulation systems, issues are solved playfully. This kind of games often help to mediate very complex issues. An example of such a simulation is the famous game Sim City, in which the player must develop his own small city. Often somewhat simpler are the so-called tutorial systems, which react to inputs of the child, and support the learning progress by intervening if needed. One can see the third kind of systems, the so-called presentation systems, as alternative to the good old book. These mostly transmit a teaching program in the form of multimedia, most notably in movie clips. Novadays, the interaction with other children does not suffer anymore, because ever more e-learning programs offer interaction modules that enable communication over the Internet. As these interactions are constantly supervised, one does not have to fear that the child does get in contact with things that are not intended for its eyes. Thus, the child can interact with other children, while at the same time improving its computer skills.

Many customers already discovered the advantages of the mail orders. Instead of driving into the shopping centres, spending hours looking for a parking, in order to finally queue up in long lines, they already order their commodity in the Internet or in the traditional mail order catalogues. Who hasn’t already spent hours driving just to find out that in the shop that the desired article is sold off? The advantages of mail orders for the customer are obvious. The disadvantages are somewhat more difficult to pin down. A disadvantage is that one can not test the products prior to buying it.

In online software retailing, a rather new business field, this disadvantage does not exist. This is because a regular shop does usually also not allow to test software prior to the sale. Online software retailing is particularly innovative for another reason. In some cases one can legally download the programs that one orders directly on the Internet site. This saves much time in comparison to the normal 3 day delivery time it takes to send a CD in a package. Next to that, the choice offered by online software retailers is usually larger than that of the traditional retailers. As the structure of online retailer stores is usually very efficient, prices are usually comparatively low. With the purchase in the Internet, one basically saves on the money that the traditional retailer spends on the rent and the high personnel expenditure.