Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!hsi!stpstn!cox
From: cox@stpstn.UUCP (Brad Cox)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: OOP and estimating
Message-ID: <5288@stpstn.UUCP>
Date: 28 Jun 90 16:11:41 GMT
References: <30852@cup.portal.com> <102100011@p.cs.uiuc.edu> <5241@stpstn.UUCP> <25062@mimsy.umd.edu> <5253@stpstn.UUCP> <31116@cup.portal.com>
Reply-To: cox@stpstn.UUCP (Brad Cox)
Organization: Stepstone
Lines: 36

In article <31116@cup.portal.com> cliffhanger@cup.portal.com (Cliff C Heyer) writes:
>I think focusing on making the workplace a happier place by looking at
>psychological issues, etc. would prove more fruitful for productivity than
>OOP ever will. But participation in the psychology USENET newsgroup is
>at an all-time low.

You might be interested in how certain organizations are managing to beat
our butts in terms of quality and time to market by *one to two orders
of magnitude).

	Average of 2-3 programmers per terminal

	Obsolete software technologies (assembler often)

	200-300 desks per room, side by side, managers at the end of each
	row.

	Workdays average 10-14 hours/day.

The organization is, of course, a Japanese software development
organization such as Hitachi, NEC, etc.  These are a quick summary from
memory of a workshop organized by Victor Basili and Colonel Will Stackhouse
at Univ. of Md on Tuesday of this week.

Of course this is not necessarily to disagree with your feeling that
psychology is what's different here. It is only that the word psychology
tends to be used to argue that the solution is reclining chairs and
more window space, rather than the Japanese 'secret'; a devastating
sense of *shame* on being found responsible for a bug that diminishes
the group's (closely monitored) performance with respect to other
groups, or (horrors) in the eyes of the customer.

-- 

Brad Cox; cox@stepstone.com; CI$ 71230,647; 203 426 1875
The Stepstone Corporation; 75 Glen Road; Sandy Hook CT 06482