I always come across people who like to bang on for ages over the smallest technical things.Don't get me wrong, I'm a geek programmer who loves what I do, but you know the type of conversation.Mac is so much better than WindowsDon't use a For Each loop, use a While loopDon't buy an Intel based PC, get an AMD based one.We should use one IoC container over another.All these things have valid pro's and con's for both sides, and you'll never get a correct answer, and the person will never concede the point. (of course there will be some where there is an answer, maybe :).My question (I'm getting there!!) is:In a software team, how do you cut through these long discussions without inhibiting innovation, so that a decision can be made and you can get on to solving the real business problems.
Stopping endless technical discussions and making a decision
development process
Problem 1.  Some people don't like to lose.  If they're not calling the shots, they're going to debate until they call the shots through attrition.Problem 2.  Nothing's really at stake, so debating is tolerated.Nothing's at stake?  Yes.  Most of the decisions have almost zero dollar impact.  The fact that it comes down to bang on for ages means that both choices are effectively identical.What to do?Realize that nothing's at stake.Realize that in 2 or 3 years, the whole subject will be reopened because something outside the organization changed.Toss a coin.  Seriously.  Just pick something and move on.  Some folks will see the silliness in debating.  Some folks will then debate the nature of the coin being tossed.  If folks can't be satisfied with a coin toss, they have ego problems and need to learn that (a) nothing's at stake and (b) the decision will be changed in a few years.If they can't figure out that nothing's at stake, they need to write out the dollar value of both sides of the argument.  At some point, someone may see that more man-hours are being spent on analysis than the actual decision is worth.  A coin toss produces equal value for a lower cost.