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Software engineering

A must-read for all software engineers and their managers

November 8, 2012 5 Comments
A must-read for all software engineers and their managers

Thanks to Cat Mikkelsen [yes, ex-NeXT people, that Cat], I read this article. It’s written by Linds Redding, an art director and animator down in New Zealand who just passed away a few days ago. But it is very, very relevant to software engineering, particularly the ‘heroic’ model of software development. In it, he talks […]

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New series of posts (at bfwa.com): Readings in Software Engineering

May 21, 2012 0 Comments
New series of posts (at bfwa.com): Readings in Software Engineering

Over at bfwa.com, I’ve started a new series of posts that will present brief reviews of and excerpts from my library of software engineering and IT project management texts. Here’s the introduction to the series; and here’s the first post, covering Jerry Weinberg’s The Psychology of Computer Programming.  ..bruce..

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A new proposed role — the “IT Czar”

January 26, 2010 1 Comment
A new proposed role — the “IT Czar”

My co-author and good friend Ruby Raley pointed me to this posting by Chris Curran over a possible new IT role, that of the “IT Czar”. Chris specifically uses a rebuilding-the-football-team analogy: What is interesting about Holmgren’s hire is that it is modeled after Bill Parcells role at Miami – The Football Czar.  He’s not […]

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HR 3200 from a systems design perspective (Part II)

September 8, 2009 5 Comments
HR 3200 from a systems design perspective (Part II)

In the first part of this three-part series, I briefly outlined the parallels between developing software and crafting legislation, while pointing out the great risks and issues in the latter. I also indicated what I felt were some of the general structural flaws  in HR 3200, the House bill on health care reform — not […]

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HR 3200 from a systems design perspective (Part I)

September 7, 2009 12 Comments
HR 3200 from a systems design perspective (Part I)

[Welcome Slashdotters — feel free to leave comments here or there. But no debates on health care reform or what HR 3200 does or does not do, please — just on the concept itself.] [Part II is now up.] On the occasions where I have reviewed the actual text of major legislation, I have been […]

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