Dear Ruven, all, 1) Not only developers and coders should be studied. Indeed, my examples came from a narrow perspective (because all projects I had in mind concentrate on those "low-level" activities). But the term we are looking for should be valid to analysts, architects, configuration managers, etc as well provided that they are directly contributing to the software product's or any other related document's/artefact's evolution. On the opposite, customers, human ressource managers, project planners, etc are not included.
2) Regarding the "sorts of software engineering activities" (small/big, industrial/research, starting/ongoing, localized/distributed projects): it should not affect the terminology and vocabulary. 3) I'm personally not really planning to study projects logitudinally (and it's definitely desireable to do so!), but again, this should not affect the terminology. Does this answer your questions? Sebastian -- Software Engineering Working Group Institut für Informatik Freie Universitaet Berlin Takustr. 9, 14195 Berlin, Germany +49 30 838 75239 http://www.inf.fu-berlin.de/~jekutsch > -----Original Message----- > From: Ruven E Brooks [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2005 7:50 PM > To: Sebastian Jekutsch > Subject: Re: PPIG discuss: software development > micro-process, behavior, or activity > > > Before getting into the details of the terminology, I'd like > know a bit more about the overall work. > From all of the examples being given below, the people being > studied are specifically programmers or coders. > There are many other software development disciplines, such > as test engineer, configuration manager, software > architect, and requirments analyst. Are any of these other > software engineering specialities being studied? > Just to set context, in my own organization, which develops > shrink wrapped software,we have about as many > testors, who never do coding, as we do programmers who write > new code. > > A related set of issue concerns what sorts of software > engineering activities are being covered. Are you studing > university research projects, industry development of > shrink-wrapped software, brand new IT projects within a > single company, > enhancement IT projects or maintenance of legacy IT systems? > The categories of activities as well as the time fractions > are almost certain > to change across these classes of projects. > > Finally, even within a category of development project, what > people do may change significantly over time. > Again, in my organization, most of the programmers are not > writing code right now; they are writing designs and specifications > in a word processor. In December, they'll be editing code > and compiling it. In March they'll also be editing code and > compiling it, > but the task will change to fixing defects, rather than > writing new code. Do plan to study projects longitudinally > to see how the activieis change? > > Ruven Brooks > > > > > > "Sebastian Jekutsch" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > 10/19/2005 11:51 AM > > To: [email protected] > cc: > Subject: PPIG discuss: software development > micro-process, behavior, or activity > > > > Dear PPIG'ler, > > there's a growing interest in the software engineering > research community what we currently term "micro-process of > software engineering". It's about studying and observing what > a programmer/developer is actually doing to develop software: > changing code, compiling, running test cases, making pauses, > discussing with colleagues, etc, etc. The research is on > discoving typical patterns of work and evaluating these in > terms of quality considerations or compliance with process > models. (In the next PPIG newsletter I will introduce this in > a bit more detail.) > > Meanwhile, we are not happy with the term "micro-process" > anymore because "process" in software engineering usually > means a *planned* procedure. Additionally, "micro-process" is > already being used in a different manner elsewhere. > > I wonder whether the "doing" should better be termed as > * software development behavior (=> behavior patterns) > or > * software development activities (=> activity patterns) > > What's the difference between "behavior" and "activity"? And > what about "action"; are programmers performing "actions" > while coding, comprehending, or testing? Automated processes > (for example nightly builds) are also "developing" software: > Do machines "behave"? What would you prefer? Is there any > accepted term for this concept? > > Any suggestion is welcome. > > Sebastian > > -- > Software Engineering Working Group > Institut für Informatik > Freie Universitaet Berlin > Takustr. 9, 14195 Berlin, Germany > +49 30 838 75239 > http://www.inf.fu-berlin.de/~jekutsch > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > PPIG Discuss List ([email protected]) > 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 ([email protected]) 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/
