(Extracted from Bloomberg on Bloomberg)
Another software development practice I started at Salomon (and apply at Bloomberg today) was to insist on an explanation from the programmers of what they were trying to do before I let them do it. I don’t have as much technical expertise as even a junior computer whiz, but that’s the programmers’ problem. They’ve got to describe it to me in language I can understand. Again and again, if that’s what it takes. Describing the “how and when” forces them to face all those things they initially glossed over when they thought about the “what”—utility, cost, maintenance, data quality, redundancy, training, cooperation. They have to satisfy me, a novice.