Way back in 2004, I wrote a short review of Tate’s Bitter Java
Basically, when this book appeared, Java was ~8 years old, and was at the peak of its hype cycle. Embraced by both the enterprise software world (okay, IBM) and the nascent open source community, Java was the golden hammer, fit for any problem.
Except, it wasn’t.
People who could program, but who weren’t familiar with domain requirements began writing Enterprise Software, and they began making a mess of it. My own company had to write-off about $7.4 million on a “failed software project” back in 2003. Suddenly, the C-levels stopped saying “Maybe we should rewrite our stuff in Java.” Historians term such retrenchment the Thermidorian Reaction, predictable after every revolution. For us in the industry, it was the heart of the doldrums between the Y2K largesse and the onslaught of Web 2.0.
All that to say: Where is “Bitter Process”? We’re about 13 years into the Mayflower Compact…er…Agile Manifesto era. Seems like it’s time someone respected pointed at the naked emperor and laughed a bit.