Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Software Lab ?

I really dont get or cannot fathom the thought that software is written in a "lab".

Atleast that term maybe hesitantly applicable for companies for Google, IRL etc. where they are not much worrried abt "outcome of a work with strict deadlines"
Otherwise the word "lab" SHOULD have a strong association with an academic institution.

But typically services industires like Infy/Accenture write software for dail and commercial use.Such a software is not a software written in a " R&D lab".It is written in an office. It is a pity that the business-men still sell the idea like we have worldclass software labs in our facility.

Look, what I mean is, if you are writing a software for a PARAM super-computer, or a CRAY machine or maybe some hardware "device" that is not exactly as "household" commodity as a computer, then the word "software lab" is fine, because, the device itself is not common-place. But a services company like Accenture opening a "Lab" (to create Desktop/Server/Web applications)....ha! it doesnt make sense.

Do people who work in offices / banks call the place they work as a "lab" ?

They are making the word "lab" very hackneyed and rather abusing that word.....software is no longer some hifi thing.

So articles like Accenture to open a lab in Bangalore sounds like a joke.

3 comments:

Sridhar Raman said...

Just like how we never did much "work" in our college labs, maybe, the people here also are pretty jobless. So, in that sense, the word lab is quite apt. :P

sudeep said...

oh yes!

I forgot that we had a "Lab" in engineering....

hahaha...sounds pretty apt

Anonymous said...

I had a Lab in my college but sometimes i used to visit the Lab because i liked to see the students from science stream cutting legs of the frog or the lizard.