Vielleicht ist dem einen oder anderen die Geschichte von der Vasa bekannt, ein Schiff, das im 17Jhd in Schweden (Stockholm) gebaut worden ist. Ich selbst habe das Schiff und seine Geschichte auf der ECSCW-Konferenz in Stockholm 1995 kennen gelernt.

In der neuesten Ausgabe der Communications of the ACM (Vol 51, No 9, S 25ff) berichtet George Neville-Neil die Geschichte der Vasa im Kontext der Lehren, die daraus für Software Engineering gezogen werden können. Und diesen Bericht möchte ich hier wiedergeben:

The Vasa was built between 1626 and 1628 for King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, who was, at that time, attempting to rule the Baltic Sea. In the 17th century, rulers were expected to be capable of more than just giving orders, so Adolphus not only organized wars, he also helped design the ships of his naval fleet. At the time Swedish warships had one deck of cannons on each side from which they fired fusillades at enemy ships, sometimes even hitting the other ships and damaging them. When the Vasa was commissioned, this single row of cannons was considered state of the art.

Some time during the construction of the ship Adolphus found out that the Poles had ships with two decks of guns, so he modified the design of the Vasa to have a second gun deck. This would have made it the most powerful naval vessel of the time, capable of delivering a broadside of devasting proportions. The men he had contracted to build his ships attempted to explain that the ship had too little ballast to support two gun decks, and that the resulting ship likely would be unsafe to sail. The King insisted – just like, say, many project managers – that his orders should be followed. On a software project you can quit, but if the King is your boss you might lose more than your job – you might, say, lose your head – so the project went forward.

In 1628 the ship was finally ready for quality assurance (QA) testing. Seventeenth-century QA of ships was a bit different from what might happen today. Thirty sailors were picked and asked to run back and forth, port to starboard, across the deck of the ship. If the ship didn’t tip over and sink, then the ship passed the test. (…) After only three runs across the deck the Vasa began to tilt wildly and the test was canceled. The test may have been canceled, but not the project. This was the King’s ship, after all, and she would sail. And sail she did.

On August 10, 1628, in a light breeze, the Vasa set sail. She was less then a mile from dock when a stiff breeze knocked her sideways. She took on water, and sank in full view of a crowd of thousands od onlookers. (…)

Es hat sich wirklich nicht viel geändert im Projektmanagement …