Quality assurance
CS 428 (Fall Semester, 9/11): Lecture on The Mythical Man-Month (Brooks), Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5
OK, it’s a bit embarrassing to realize it’s been nine months since I last posted here. But a new semester has started, and with it, my lectures on software engineering for CS 428 (at Brigham Young University). Here’s my lecture from the first class, covering chapters 1, 2, 4 and 5 of The Mythical Man-Month […]
Teaching CS 428 (Software Engineering) at BYU
This (Winter 2017) semester, I am teaching Computer Science 428 — “Software Engineering” — for the Brigham Young University Computer Science department. I am actually taking over this class from Dr. Charles “Chuck” Knutson, who was one of my students 30 years ago when I previously taught for BYU. I’m going to do a bit […]
The 5 books every IT manager should read right now
In a prior post I talked about setting up a reading program for your IT department. However, whether or not you can get your IT engineers to read, you yourself need to be aware of the fundamental realities of IT project management and software engineer that have been discovered again and again. In other words, […]
Septic code: why some large IT projects never go into production
A common pattern in the failure of large IT software projects is “the Never-Ending Story”, which I described back in 2000 (PDF) as follows: The client contracts with the manufacturer to develop and install a system. The project starts. The completion date slips. It keeps slipping. Each time the adjusted delivery date approaches, the project slips […]
Weighing in on Project Orca
[Cross posted from And Still I Persist] [Note: I am currently in transit from Colorado to Florida and am composing this post as I have time and ‘net access.] “All the most important mistakes are made on the first day.” – The Art of Systems Architecting (Maier & Rechtin) Project Orca was the Romney campaign’s […]