In a cartoon that you can find on more than one programmer’s Web site—and, I would bet, on the walls of cubicles in software companies everywhere—Dilbert, the world’s favorite downtrodden geek, says to his supervisor (the celebrated Pointy-Haired Boss, or PHB), “We still have too many software faults. We’ll miss our ship date.” The PHB replies, “Move the list of faults to the ‘future development’ column and ship it.” In the final window, the PHB, pleased with himself, thinks: “Ninety percent of this job is figuring out what to call stuff.”
