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RE: Interesting XML-DIST-APP thread

• To: 'Marcus Carr' <mrc@a...>, XML-Dev <xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: RE: Interesting XML-DIST-APP thread
• From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>
• Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 08:53:42 -0600

I accept it. Not amazingly, the success factors look a lot 
like the best practices for web services.  Boltzman's 
Theorem still is the best predictor.  By the way, the enemy 
of the lessons learned and presented in this article is the 
dictum, "if it can't be measured, it can't be managed".  It 
makes the Seibel-style vendor very nervous when you explain 
to them that a software project can't be managed by "a price 
and a part number".

"Low-precision architecture diagrams are easier to remember, low precision 
requirements tables are easier to prioritize and evaluate early in a project, 
low-precision design documentation is better at giving the reader "the idea" 
of the design - and then letting them look around."

Why a basic schema is often better than a large complex set of state diagrams.  Only a computer really 
likes extremely detailed instructions.   People find them tedious, insulting, and expensive. The 
problem we discovered with CASE systems for enterprise modeling is that we confused 
modeling with simulation.

"Some people like to make lists, some don't. Some work best nights, some work 
best in the morning. Some like deadlines, some don't. Groups vary similarly. Some 
cultures prize public self-scrutiny, others shelter people from embarrassment, and so on."

You have to model a culture if you want to model human communications.  
Simple process/control models a la IDEF0 really do work but don't go 
too deep.

"Physical proximity. I am at a loss to explain why, but being physically 
close to the other person affects the communication. Whether it is 
three-dimensionality, timing, smell, or small visual cues, physical proximity matters."

That he is at a loss to explain it tells me he was a hacker  
and probably had a lot of trouble getting a date in high school.
 
"Multiple modalities. People communicate through gestures as well as words, often making a 
point by gesturing, raising an eyebrow or pointing while speaking." 

God gave you at least five senses.  Learning how to turn them off is the first 
skill hackers learn so they can ignore their mother screaming at them from 
the kitchen to turn off the computer and come to dinner.

"Vocal inflection and timing. By speeding up, slowing down, pausing, or changing tones, 
the speaker emphasizes the importance of a sentence, or perhaps its surprise value. "

Unfortunately, through years of practice, screaming becomes the only vocal the 
modern programmer hears through the headphones and the grungy rock.

"Real-time question-and-answer. Questions reveal the ambiguity in the speaker's 
explanation, or the way in which the explanation misses the listener's background. 
The timing of the questions sets up a pattern of communication between the parties. "

"Yeah."  "Right."  "Uh huh."  "Didja?"  "No, YAGNI!"  and so it goes.

Proxemics, haptics, kinesics, culture, gestures, sensory modalities and timing.  
Score for the HumanML guys.  It seems semiotics 
and hermaneutics still have the most accurate models of human communications 
and computer scientists have the worst.

I want to publicly thank Ed Dumbhill for the HyTime award for HumanML.  It honors 
us, reminds us to keep the hype minimal and because it keeps people away from the project, 
just might enable it to succeed. ;-)

len

-----Original Message-----
From: Marcus Carr [mailto:mrc@a...]

This is getting even further off-topic, but Rick Jelliffe sent me this pointer
the other day. It reflects the way that he manages the developers of Topologi
products and if you accept the basic premise, it casts quite a different light
on the use and importance of methodologies. Even if you don't accept it, at the
very least it illustrates the difficulty and imprecision of picking a
development strategy for a project. See

http://members.aol.com/humansandt/papers/nonlinear/nonlinear.htm

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