再说说software rewrite：我在上班的地方，参加过两次rewrite （重写）的项目，现在的项目是其中一个，大概做了两年多了：中间换了不知道多少contractors，现在好像还没有看到the light at the end of the tunnels。每次此类项目，management 一开始都有非常optimistic 的expectations：但实际工作中不是这样。
Why rewrite is hard? Or the hardest?
I can think of a few reasons.
1) Management usually has very realistic (overly optimistic) expectations. I don’t know what kool aid the management drinks, but somehow there is current “sort of working system”, somehow lead them to think “what’s a big deal: we have done that”. The reality is: “sort of working” is not equal to “working as desired”. “Done that” does not mean “the original developers for the working system” are still around.
2) Politics: sometimes the company uses contractors as “scape goat”. I have seen that quite a few times. So when things are not going well, let’s just blame the contractors, let them go, and bring in new ones. And so on. This is madness too, because the company waste opportunities to learn from their mistakes, and to grow, and to make sure not to make same stupid mistakes again. But hey, admitting “we made mistakes” is just shameful, and “we never make mistakes”. “We are perfect”. Only the contractors make mistakes. This is obviously far from truth.
Also: I wrote the article below about 9 years ago:
Sustainable Software Development II : Rewrite And Star Performer
Reddit: Why exactly does most software rewrite fail?
Adobe: We Decided to Rewrite Our Software. You Won’t Believe What Happened Next!
amazingcto.com: How To Succeed With A Rewrite – And Why They Fail
google – famous software rewrite failure stories
Last but not least, here is a X thread I wrote on the topic.