Re: Fwd: Re: [Gnumed-devel] GNUmed brochures (was When will GNUmed be ready)

[Richard Hosking]

The Gnumed project development cycle could be likened to one of the 
modern "agile" software development methodologies
A "prototype" is developed (which may or may not be a working program - 
it could be a paper protoype) which is then evaluated and changes 
proposed to improve the current design, and the cycle begins again.
This stuff is not just theoretical - it is widely used by commercial 
software developers to speed the development cycle.
I dont have the skills of many in the forum, though they are slowly 
improving.
I find the code in Gnumed almost totally impenetrable (which doesnt mean 
it is badly constructed - it is just me) , and I doubt I could add much 
of value to the coding without fairly intensive direction.

I would not see Gnumed as a viable alternative in Australia in it's 
current form - it needs accounting, a front desk module and prescribing. 
As it is, it is of academic interest only to Australian Drs. It appears 
that the work required to achieve these other components may be 
insurmountable.

It will be difficult to produce the functionality of alternatives, so it 
will have to offer something new to compete - I see cost and freedom 
from Windows with all it's licensing issues as the big drawcards.
A proper robust database design and internet/network scalability are 
other (major!) pluses, but most Drs would not necessarily see this as a 
great advantage.

I think perhaps coding should stop and the "evaluation" part of the 
cycle should be looked at - what do we (and other users) want? Does the 
current software achieve this? If not, what are the priorities and who 
will do the work?
By "management" of the project I would think we mean tracking this 
process, and to certain extent directing (and assisting if necessary) 
those interested to do certain tasks in a coordinated way

Richard


Sebastian Hilbert wrote:

> On Friday 16 December 2005 10:41, Hilmar Berger wrote:
>  
>
> > Hi,
> > On Thu, 15 Dec 2005 20:27:08 +0100
> >
> > Sebastian Hilbert <address@hidden> wrote:
> >    
> >
> > > > Without a clear vision, your specs will be wrong (written down or not),
> > > > which will finally result in useless code.
> > > >