Software Lemmings

Software lemmings is a paper written by Alan Davis, an author with a long track record in engineering.

In it he details the various trends that have taken hold of the software industry as well as detailing their flaws and failings. The crux of the paper is that he warns software practitioners to be wary of trends as they may be fads. He also warns against blindly applying industry buzz words and techniques as they may not be applicable in a generic fashion

My first problem with the essay is that he lists no references for his arguments and thus it is difficult to establish what exactly is his basis for making the assertions in the essay. The other issue is that words like structured programming are used loosely without definition. This also makes it difficult to ascertain what he means by the terminology he uses.

All in all, the paper lays out some interesting points for debate.

Tadaa!

Its wonderful how you can click a button and suddenly you have a new house so to speak on the internet , just brilliant isn't it , I wish real estate was that easy :). Anyway this is intended to be a blog to foster intellectual discussion on the field of software and its various facets.

Notice the emphasis is on discussion so I need you to help make this a discussion instead of a soliloquy of one. A quick background is that I have been in computing in various shapes and forms for as long as I can remember, which isn't very long , however I believe that I have the right mix of optimism that the software industry can be better and the "youthful exuberance" to believe that I can be part of the positive change in the industry.

I have no ideas of grandiose and I am ever willing to learn so let the games begin. I will be starting by commencing a series of weekly discourses of what I think are interesting papers and research and sharing my opinions and hopefully you will spare a little time to help enrich the space that is this blog.

The initial discussion is on the paper "No Silver Bullet - Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering" by Fred Brooks. I think it lays foundational and fundamental assertions that make for an interesting look at the industry and where its coming from.