Better: Improving Software Process Through Blood, Faith, Myth and Legend

Better

At this point in history no one can prove that, pre-deployment, a given body of software will be reliable and, more importantly, safe in all operational situations. The next time you board an aircraft no one can guarantee 100% that you’ll make it to your destination. Probability is always involved. In 2018-19 three hundred and forty-six passengers on two Boeing 737 Max flights didn’t.
You might be wondering why aircraft and automobile manufacturers are allowed to use software to perform life critical functions in their products. For example, Airbus fly-by-wire systems and the currently much hyped self-driving cars. Continue reading…

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Moral Strength: Learning from Nietzsche and the Wolf

Posted by Les Chambers on May 02, 2013
Ethics, Human Factors, Safety, Story / No Comments

Morality is a muscle. In some it never gets a chance to develop – atrophied from birth by spineless role models. In others it develops through childhood and the idealistic days of youth, but withers in the face of the so-called pragmatics of life, leaving us unable to exert any moral force at all when the situation desperately calls for it (refer, Deus Ex Machina and Speaking Truth to Power). We allow immoral things to happen and, in so doing, contribute to evil. We allow the present moment, that instant in time when we can choose to act, to be corrupted by our memory of what has been and our desire for what might be. We allow fear of consequence to cloud our morality. Continue reading…

Oarsmen: The Image of a Performing Team

Posted by Les Chambers on December 24, 2012
Human Factors, Project Management / No Comments

What does teamwork look like? If you are unsure take a moment, sit by a river and wait. You’ll soon see. Continue reading…

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Dolça Barcelona: How Systems Thinking Saved History

Posted by Les Chambers on November 08, 2012
Human Factors, Quality, Safety, Story, Systems Engineering / 2 Comments

We have to get off this planet. The last terrestrial extinction event occurred only 66 million years ago with an asteroid strike on the Yucatan Peninsula. It wiped out three-quarters of the plant and animal species on planet Earth. Only the naive believe this will never happen again.
Elon Musk has the right idea. His strategy for space migration to the planet Mars will make humanity a dual planetary species improving the odds on our survival for a while to come.
This is commendable risk management in action. It’s necessary but not sufficient. It ignores the reality that Andromeda (our nearest galaxy) is headed our way. Within 4.5 billion years it will collide with the Milky Way (our home galaxy). Don’t worry, no one will be around for the experience. Within 3.75 billion years the surface of the Earth will have already become far too hot for liquid water to exist, ending all terrestrial life.
Ergo, forget about exiting planet earth, we need to vacate the galaxy.
Don’t laugh. We need to develop a sense of urgency about this because engineering the systems required for intergalactic travel will take that long. Let’s start thinking about vehicles that can house autonomous human communities for multiple generations in intergalactic space.
It’s an interesting thought experiment. The problems are scientific, engineering and human. A while back I visited my daughter Julianne in Barcelona. My trip set me to systems thinking. Continue reading…

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New: Reflecting on the Creative Process

Posted by Les Chambers on August 17, 2012
Creativity / 1 Comment

The mind is a place full of wonder but so few people realize its potential. Life intervenes. A partner, children, a mortgage and work. The need for survival that chains you to someone else’s ideas. But what would happen if your mind was allowed free reign, to follow its bliss? To create something new of your own choosing. With no constraints other than the boundaries of your own imagination. What would become of you if, at the end, you had no choice but to point to your creation and say, “Here it is, it’s all mine and I can’t do any better than that.” Continue reading…

Story: Using the Patterns of Myths and Legends to Build Better Systems

Posted by Les Chambers on June 18, 2012
Project Management, Requirements, Story / Comments Off on Story: Using the Patterns of Myths and Legends to Build Better Systems

The current fashion of eliciting software requirements by collecting user stories is pathetically superficial. The educated use of stories has a much deeper purpose in systems engineering, and that is to reveal the fundamental principles that drive successful systems development. The story patterns of myth and legend hold eternal wisdom known since the fall of man into the field of time. Projecting these patterns onto technology projects leads to more insightful decision making in every aspect of complex systems development. Continue reading…

Extreme Review: A Tale of Nakedness, Alsatians and Fagan Inspection

Posted by Les Chambers on May 16, 2012
Education, Quality, Safety / 2 Comments
The Luncheon on the Grass, Edouard Manet

Two naked babies amble across a busy freeway. Trotting after them is a guy in a suit. The guy is me. Looking back on that day it’s clear that this was an omen, for within the hour I was to encounter extreme review and understand why, that for systems engineers, public nakedness is sometimes a good thing. Continue reading…

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New Learning and the Post Apocalyptic Fate of the University

Posted by Les Chambers on March 30, 2012
Education, Quality / No Comments
New Learning

The uptake of web enabled learning technologies is far too slow in educational institutions. This will inevitably mean extinction for some. If our universities are the dinosaurs then the coming meteor is the “category killer course”. The university course that is so good, so cheap, so universally available, so universally respected and so universally job procuring that it wipes out its traditional competitors. On the brighter side fantastic careers abound for talented educators who embrace a career in teaching with the new media. Continue reading…

On Standards and Art

Posted by Les Chambers on March 06, 2012
Quality, Safety / No Comments

If you comply with a quality standard does this mean you’ve made a quality product? If you comply with a safety standard is your system is safe? Probably not. To produce quality you’ve got to know what people want and that can take a lifetime of experience. To guarantee safety you must have seen a lot of failures and that’s another lifetime of blowing stuff up. Standards are forms not formulas if you want quality and safety you’ll have to add some creativity and experience to the mix. Continue reading…

Deus Ex Machina and Speaking Truth to Power

Posted by Les Chambers on February 28, 2012
Ethics, Safety / 1 Comment
BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Drilling Rig

What to do when people are put in harm’s way because solid, technical advice on designing, deploying and operating complex systems is ignored by decision makers not competent in the target technology? Does the ethical responsibility for the consequences pass to the decision maker somehow absolving the advisor?  Or should engineers forswear company loyalty for their higher duty to preserve human safety? At what point should deference to the boss or the client be replaced by mutiny – action outside the chain of command to prevent an accident? Continue reading…