Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!decwrl!netcomsv!jls
From: jls@netcom.COM (Jim Showalter)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Pictorial Case Tools
Message-ID: <1991May24.202600.14452@netcom.COM>
Date: 24 May 91 20:26:00 GMT
References: <136@mishima.mishima.mn.org> <1991May22.223228.5483@netcom.COM> <1991May23.185623.24457@agate.berkeley.edu> <19874@crdgw1.crd.ge.com>
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  UNIX System {408 241-9760 guest}
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>For me the main purpose of the pictorial case tools is to capture the design
>at as early a stage as possible so that we can begin testing for consistency
>and omissions with automated tools.

I guess the issue I have with this is not so much the checking--I agree
that tools automate checking--as it is the notion that there is anything to
BE checked that is an indicator of good design. Yes, a tool can automatically
check that all my bubbles and arcs line up properly, but the fundamental
issue I have with this is: what proof, if any, is there that those bubbles
and arcs have anything to do with a good design? It gets back to the same
issue in the metrics thread in this same group: for metrics to be of value,
one has to have confidence that the metrics are measuring something that
has a correlation to project success; for design tools to be of value, one
has to have confidence that the tools are enforcing things that have a
correlation to good design. I think what designers do is largely ephemeral:
it takes place in the space between their ears. Good designers do something
that produces a good design. Most people are not good designers. I doubt
that good designers arrive at good designs by manipulating bubbles and arcs
in their brains (I could be wrong here--anybody who is a good designer care
to describe how they do what they do?).
-- 
**************** JIM SHOWALTER, jls@netcom.com, (408) 243-0630 ****************
*Proven solutions to software problems. Consulting and training on all aspects*
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