2012-01-16
Explanation
This comic is drawn in the style of a child's school project, titled "How Software is Made, by Sally, Age 8." It walks through the software development process as understood (and misunderstood) by a young child, depicting each stage with crayon-style drawings on notebook paper: a daddy working at a company, management making decisions they don't understand, a database, programmers trying to fix problems in other people's code, marketing, a product called "KYUB," customers who want everything changed, and a daddy who stays at home all the time.
The humor comes from the contrast between the innocent childlike presentation and the uncomfortably accurate critique of the software industry. Each stage satirizes real dysfunction in tech companies -- clueless management, ugly legacy code, marketing that doesn't understand the product, demanding customers, and developers who end up burned out and jobless. The childlike framing makes these harsh truths funnier by presenting them as naive observations rather than bitter complaints. The small panel at the bottom (a typical SMBC "votey" or red button panel style) adds a final jab about forgetting the part where the whole team eventually moves to another company.