The Vasa Ship

Visited the Vasa ship in my old home town Stockholm last week. Back in 1628 the warship Vasa set sail on its maiden voyage as the newest ship in the Royal Swedish Navy. After sailing about 1300 meters, a light gust of wind caused the Vasa to heel over on its side. Water poured in through the gun portals and the ship sank.

The story goes that after the 111-foot keel of the Vasa had been laid, King Gustav, working remotely (ok fine, he was waging a war against Poland), learned that a large ship with two gun decks was being built in Denmark. This resulted in an order from the King that the ship currently under construction be enlarged and that the enlarged ship have two enclosed gun decks. The admiral thus relayed the order for the 111-foot ship to be scaled up to 135 feet and that a second enclosed gun deck be added.

The Vasa was planned as a small, traditional ship but became large, intended to carry maximum armament without regard for factors such as stability, stiffness, and sailing characteristics. The result was a ship that was not seaworthy. The Vasa had insufficient ballast for stability in a light breeze and adding sufficient ballast (had there been room for it) would have put the lower-deck gun portals at or below the waterline.

There's a few lessons here that applies to software development.

1. The architectural decisions you make early on impacts the long (or in the case of Vasa, short) term outcome.
2. Late/ large feature add-ons (Cannons!) can sink a project that doesn't have flexible architecture
3. Top down dictation - listen to and empower your engineers to push back / reconsider plans based on their expertise