Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!ads.com!saturn!jgautier From: jgautier@vangogh.ads.com (Jorge Gautier) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: bridge building and discipline Message-ID: Date: 13 May 91 17:50:16 GMT References: <1259@grapevine.EBay.Sun.COM> <9105012313.AA23259@enuxha.eas.asu.edu> <1991May3.142824.208@keinstr.uucp> <1991May3.234349.14026@auto-trol.com> <4504.28267bad@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> <1991May9.053311.800@netcom.COM> <4563.282e83ea@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> Sender: usenet@ads.com (USENET News) Distribution: na Organization: Advanced Decision Systems, Mountain View, CA 94043, +1 (415) 960-7300 Lines: 41 In-Reply-To: kambic@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com's message of 13 May 91 17:17:46 GMT In article <4563.282e83ea@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> kambic@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com (George X. Kambic, Allen-Bradley Inc.) writes: > In article <1991May9.053311.800@netcom.COM>, jls@netcom.COM (Jim Showalter) writes: > [...] > > > > If someone with an eye on the bottom line determines that undisciplined > > programmers are costing the company money, it is NOT big brotherism to > > impose a more software-engineering-oriented language on them: this is > > called "capitalism". > > This is a point that I thought I raised earlier, and on which I received zero > feedback. I will paraphrase: The Watts Humphrey (and others) paradigm is that > the process must be measured, not the people executing the process. Then > whatever is wrong with the process must be fixed. This implies that > no one is somehow responsible for a failure in the process. There seems to > be a furious effort to neglect the reality of this point. Incompetence is a taboo subject, just like anything that happens below the waist. It's real and it happens all the time, but nobody wants to talk about it (including me :). > The effort to > collect meaningful metrics data will make it possible to determine if > individual contributors are not meeting project goals. At what point does the > "bottom-line" person determine the state and fate of this person. The > paraphrased statement attributed to Humphrey implies never. This is unreal. I think the desire for metrics is an admission by management types that they really don't know what's going on in their projects. Good managers are able to tell if the project goals are being met, who's doing well and who's screwing up without any metrics. Metrics mania indicates that someone doesn't understand software development and/or they're desperate to figure out what's causing poor quality or project failure. The "logical" arguments for metrics and the assurances that they won't be used for evaluating people are merely persuasive techniques used to facilitate the establishment of a questionable practice (just like the ads that tell us how "beef fits into today's balanced diets.") -- Jorge A. Gautier| "The enemy is at the gate. And the enemy is the human mind jgautier@ads.com| itself--or lack of it--on this planet." -General Boy DISCLAIMER: All statements in this message are false.