1 post tagged “corporations”

A framework is kind of like a boat, your two happiest days are the day you get it, and the day you get rid of it.

A framework is supposed to be empowering.  It's supposed to act as a launchpad, from which you can build upward, and the sky's the limit.  This is Obj-C/Cocoa, or .NET, or Ruby on Rails.  They are empowering frameworks.

Instead of a launchpad, an internal corporate framework often becomes a box.  Too specific, and too presumptuous.  The box is tricked out with fancy toys to make your life easier, so long as you stay inside.  But if you want to tread new ground, you have to knock down the door and drag the rubble with you along the way.

It's frustrating to be working on a project and reach a point where the framework has locked you in.  Something in the framework outside your control is working unexpectedly and because you don't have ownership of it there's nothing you can do about it.  You could go ask the person that wrote it, and maybe they'll be kind or smart enough to see the problem and help you work around it...but the person may be out sick that day.  Or the person may be too busy with other things.  Or they may simply tell you that's too hard and you need to pull back on your program's requirements and ambitions..

Then again, if an internal framework can actually be a launchpad, it can be really sweet...exactly how a person views a framework may depend heavily on the current task at hand.   ;o)