Peopleware Papers: Notes on the Human Side of Software, The

Chapter 31. Under Pressure

Lorne, Australia, is the gateway to The Great Ocean Road that winds along some of the most beautiful coastline in the world, past dramatic cliffs, thundering surf, and sugar-sand beaches where you can walk for miles and hardly see a soul. While I was living in Australia, the Victorian Branch of the Australian Computer Society invited me to Lorne for their annual conference. I was to help judge their first Software Challenge, a six-hour application development marathon using the latest in rapid visual development tools to build a truck weighing application for a recycling facility. This was the third such rapid development competition I had refereed, so I was becoming an old hand (see Chapter 30). I had, for example, ...