Ariadne.. I've lost the thread. Isn't the first P in PPIG for Psychology?
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Derek M Jones Sent: 09 March 2005 17:31 To: discuss@ppig.org Subject: RE: PPIG discuss: Commercial reality (was: Competence (was: About natural naming)) Jacques, >However, I admit that I still have some of that idealism left in me - but >not nearly as much as most of my colleagues. > >Why do I have some of that idealism left? Because, at least in the case of >mathematical software, the barrier to entry is huge: it takes ~100 >person-years to develop a halfway decent piece of mathematical software. So >'competition' is thin, essentially restricted to existing players only. I think this is the future of software engineering. Most of the major applications that have to be written have now been written (and many of the not so major ones; minor ones will continue to be written for ever). While it may be universally agreed that most existing code is a mess, there is no worthwhile cost/benefit in rewriting it. I think that to be applicable to industry those ppigers interested in software development need to concentrate on how people work with existing code (which is what most developers today work with). >The question becomes: other than through good will, how do quality >improvements happen in such an environment? How can customers 'force' >quality improvements? Money talks. Once they own a customer base companies can charge for releases that fix bug. The morality of charging for bug fixes is often discussed. But without a revenue stream (or a threat of loosing one to competition) there is no reason for companies to pay staff to fix them. >> I lay a large chunk of the blame at the feet of CS educators who >> would clearly fail an introductory course in business administration. >> Perhaps I was wrong to suggest that software developers should >> be jailed. Jailing a few university lecturers for teaching nonsense >> might be a more efficient long term solution. > >But this is true in many disciplines, not just CS. True. But it is only a problem when the person taught nonsense in subject X then goes to work in field X. >However this is why I joined a 'software engineering' department, in a >Faculty of Engineering, with an eye towards getting my PEng. After which, >if I were to certify that some software does what it is supposed to do, and >it does not, I am liable. I could be fine, lose my PEng status, or be sued. >I view this as a good thing. I hope that eventually, through changes in >law, certain software (like certain buildings, electronic products, chemical >plants, etc) will need certification be a licensed engineer, and will not be >allowed to be used/sold/etc otherwise. I admire your idealism. However, history suggests that it is the large scale killing of customers that is the real driving force for change (outside the profit motive). For an excellent example see: sunnyday.mit.edu/papers/steam.ps Where are the large number of people whose deaths can be directly attributed to software? One of the interesting discussions in Malcolm Gladwell's 'Blink' is that a significant predictor of a doctor being sued, in the US, is patient dislike of them. Well liked, incompetent, doctors are rarely sued, while disliked competent ones are! Does anybody know of research looking at how the threat of punitive action affects the performance of engineers? I guess they become very conservative and risk averse. Studies looking at the impact of new laws on the behavior of professionals might suggest how software engineering could evolve in the future. derek -- Derek M Jones tel: +44 (0) 1252 520 667 Knowledge Software Ltd mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Applications Standards Conformance Testing http://www.knosof.co.uk ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PPIG Discuss List (discuss@ppig.org) Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PPIG Discuss List (discuss@ppig.org) Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/
