I just read Paul Kimmel's very interesting article on "truisms" of software development called "Un-Dynamics of Software Development, or, Don't Bite the Flip Bozo" . The article is written in an amusing/cynical tone, however a lot (if not all) of it is really true -

"Flipping the Bozo bit " by the way is "to make a mental note that a particular person is a bozo and everything they say in the future should be ignored or looked upon as the meanderings of a slightly annoying, occasionally amusing child or a drunken uncle"

Paul comments that the mean time for someone in the crowd to flip the bozo bit on you when you start speaking is 10 seconds.

The article also mentions stuff like

• When someone says the schedule is going to be missed, they are never lying.
• If a manager says I am not technical, be prepared to spend a lot of time explaining things to them so they can make decisions they shouldn't be making.
• Managers hire experts and ignore them all the time.

[found via Mitch Barnett's blog on software industrialization - which provides for interesting reading by itself (focusing with Software Factories and DSLs and general software development). his company developed a Biztalk appliance, which you may want to checkout if you are using Biztalk*]

---

* I have my views and some reservations regarding Biztalk - but I guess that a subject for another post :)