The term “Software Engineering” is flawed, according to Neil Ernst, and I agree completely: it is a metaphor that conveys all sorts of incorrect connotations about the diverse and complex nature of software development. I don’t use it anymore if I can avoid it, and neither should you.
Entries Tagged as ‘Software development’
May 24, 2009
ICSE 2009 highlights
Here’s the list of my highlights from ICSE 2009. It is, of course, a very partial list, focused on the “human” or “soft” or “cooperative” or “whatever-its-name-is” side of software development that interests me.
The CHASE workshop
The Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering workshop is the one I always look forward to, and if most [...]
May 23, 2009
The Secret Life of Bugs: a brief summary
Well, my ICSE talk has come and gone, and I’m very happy with it and with the feedback I got. Now, with the talk behind, I feel it’s a good idea to give a brief summary of what the paper Gina and I wrote is all about. I should say though, if you’re interested in [...]
May 21, 2009
Presenting at ICSE 2009
If you’re attending ICSE 2009, do come to the talk on The Secret Life of Bugs tomorrow (Thursday) at the Maintenance session, 11am!
If you’re curious about the paper, and don’t have access to the proceedings, you can find it on this link. I’ll write some more about the study after I’m done with the presentation.
Wish [...]
February 26, 2009
More on measurement
Related to yesterday’s post and to an entry I wrote two years ago on measurement, I just found an old (2003) post from Martin Fowler on why we can’t measure productivity in software development. He’s much clearer than I am, and his article is well worth reading. His conclusion:
I can see why measuring productivity is [...]
December 19, 2008
Academic Rotation
Great post by Martin Fowler on the need to get first-hand experience developing software if you intend to do relevant research in the field. I agree completely, though I do understand that, given the way the system is set up, getting industry experience after you get your Ph.D. unfortunately doesn’t look great on your CV [...]
December 12, 2008
Our work at Boing Boing
Our (Jonathan Lung’s, Steve Easterbrook’s, Greg Wilson’s, and my own) ICSE paper on replicating a study to determine programmer aptitude was cited by a Boing Boing post by Clay Shirky. I think that’s a first.
November 21, 2008
Secret Life of Bugs: Going to ICSE
This just in: The report Gina Venolia and I wrote during my internship at Microsoft Research was accepted for presentation and publication at the 2009 International Conference on Software Engineering.
I’ll post a link to the paper, and a description of what we did, once we have the final version ready. For now, in case you’re [...]
September 24, 2008
Standish, the CHAOS report, and science
Every software engineering researcher has heard of the 1994 CHAOS report from the Standish Group. It reported that the large majority of software projects fail, and that they incur in an average of 189% cost overrun. It’s a very popular report –the go-to reference for researchers that want to make the case that the software [...]
July 22, 2008
MyTTC.ca
One of the things that has saved me in my short stint here at Seattle is the fantastic Google Transit service. I don’t have a car, and navigating the bus schedule tables and maps in the unintuitive local transit website is a constant source of frustration.
Now, Google Transit is already available for plenty of cities [...]
