14. Silver bullets

But, as we look to the horizon of a decade hence, we see no silver bullet. There is no single development, in either technology or management technique, which by itself promises even one order of magnitude improvement in productivity, in reliability, in simplicity. (Brooks, 1987)

No Silver Bullet (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Most of the history of computer science has alternated between movements that claim to solve all of the problems inherent in making software and the subsequent realisation that, no, this just moved the problem around.

Even in the rare case when we figure out how to essentially fix software in one area, we also adopt software in a hundred new industries and fields where that fix does not work. The silver bullets that actually manage to slay the werewolf are ad hoc, specialised, and only work on that specific werewolf, not the species of man-turned-beast in general.