A few days ago, after a Microsoft event in Denver, I was hanging with Rob Bagby (another great set of presentations from Rob) and some other developers.  One of our group members, another fellow named Rob, remarked that the phrase “Common Sense” should be removed from the English language.  He suggested that we replace it with the phrase “Uncommon Sense” given the rarity with which common sense is found.

For instance, we were discussing the process of developing software and the multiple constituencies represented on a typical software project: business executives, project management, design, development, users, etc.  Amazingly, everyone on the project expects “success” even though statistically, the odds are against it (see Standish Group’s Chaos Report).

Looks like the folks at the Shane Company fell prey to this often overlooked statistic.  What “Common Sense” business-person would allow an $8-10MM 12-month project stretch to $36MM and 32 months for a Point-of-Sale and Inventory Management System (sadly, the system still has bugs)? That $36MM figure represents at least a couple of years of profits for the jeweler.  The company that produced this $36MM software system ought to be ashamed.  They didn’t have the “Common Sense” to put an end to the black-hole of code that they produced.  I bet the lone reader of this blog is thinking that if they were running the project, they would have had the “Uncommon Sense” to have delivered that project with better results.  But that’s what everyone would like to think about themselves.  I think that I could have done the project for $1,000 in under one day.  I would have told them to never start such a huge undertaking in one go.