The Shoelace Problem

Since I'm starting a blog I might as well write about something that I've noticed when getting started on something new.

It's going to be a great day today. You have great things planned. You're going to fly the Space Shuttle to the top of Mount Everest to collect your Lottery prize. All you have to do is start by walking out the door.

Damn. Your shoelaces won't tie. Strange, try again. Nope, some module threw a ShoelaceTieException. Never seen that before. Hmm... they worked fine yesterday. It's the same shoes, and the same feet. And now you're standing here feeling stupid because you can't even get out the door. Everybody knows you can't walk through a door without your shoelaces tied.

The "Shoelace Problem" hits you right at the beginning, is usually unexpected, seems trivial and yet is a total show stopper.

Lately I've seen a lot of Shoelace Problems. The quick little project where the software install fails. The EJB compiler tool that throws a NullPointerException for your trivial Hello World EJB. The DataSource JNDI name you can't seem to look up. The App Server that won't start.

It's like the phrase "fell at the first hurdle", except that in I.T. there are so many different ways to fall. Of course there are also the non-I.T. variants. You may be familiar with the following phrases:

• She's on holiday
• We don't have a computer for you
• The requirements aren't ready
• The Business Case isn't signed off

Still, I should be grateful that during a recent power cut (at 8:30 AM) I had arrived early enough not to be trapped in the elevator. Now that's a shoelace problem.