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A distillation of Robert Glass’s lifetime experience
Robert Glass is a software engineering developer, manager, researcher and author who, until six months ago, I had vaguely heard of; somehow I had missed reading any of his 25 books. After seeing citations to some of Glass’s books, I bought half-a-dozen or so, second hand. They are well written, and twenty-five years ago I would have found them very interesting; now I simply agree with the points made.
“software creativity 2.0” is Glass’s penultimate book, published in 2006, and the one that caught my attention. I would recommend his other books to anybody who is new to software engineering, or experienced people looking for an encapsulation in print of what they encounter at work.
Glass was 74 when this book was published, having started working in computing in 1954. He was there and seems to have met many of the major names in software engineering, working with some of them.
The book is a clear-eyed summary of what Glass has learned from being involved with software engineering, and watching method/tool fashions come and go. My favourite section draws parallels between software development cultures and the culture of Rome vs. Greek vs. Barbarian:
Models Roman Greek Barbarians Organization Organize people Organize things Barely Focus Manages projects Writes programs Leap to coding Motivation Group goals Problem to be solved Heroics Working style Organizations Small groups Solo Politics Imperial Democratic Anarchist Tool use People are tools Things are tools Avoid tools Status Function-ocracy Meritocracy Fear-ocracy Activities Plan things Do things Break things Emphasize Form Substance Line of code |
The contents are essentially a collection of short essays, organized under the 19 chapter headings below, which in turn are grouped into four parts. The first nine chapters (part I, and 60% of pages) contain the experience based material, with the subsequent parts/pages having a creativity theme. A thread running through the discussion is idealism/practice:
Discipline vs. Flexibility
Formal methods versus Heuristics
Optimizing versus Satisficing
Quantitative versus Qualitative Reasoning
Process versus Product
Intellect vs. Clerical Tasks
Theory vs. Practice
Industry vs. Academe
Fun versus Getting Serious
Creativity in the Software Organization
Creativity in Software Technology
Creative Milestones in Software History
Organizational Creativity
The Creative Person
Computer Support for Creativity
Creativity Paradoxes#'twas Always Thus
A Synergistic Conclusion
Other Conclusions |
This book deserves to be widely read. I found it best to read a single section per sitting.
Anthropology and building software systems
Software systems are built by people, who are usually a member of one or more teams. While a lot of research effort has gone into studying the software/hardware used to build these systems, almost no effort has been invested in studying the activities of the people involved.
The study of human behaviors and cultures, in the broadest sense, sits within the field of Anthropology. The traditional image of an Anthropologist is someone who spends an extended period living with some remote tribe, publishing a monograph about their experiences on return to ‘civilisation’. In practice, anthropologists also study local tribes, such as professional workers.
Studies of the computer industry, by anthropologists, include: Global “Body Shopping” An Indian Labor System in the Information Technology Industry by Xiang Biao, and Cultures@SiliconValley by J. A. English-Lueck.
Reporters and professional authors sometimes write popular books for a general audience, which might be labelled pop anthropology. For instance, Kidder’s The Soul of a New Machine.
These academic/reporter publications are usually written by outsiders for an audience of outsiders. They are not intended to provide insights for insiders (Kidder’s book strikes me as reporting on the chaos that ensues when dysfunctional teams have to work together, which is not how it is described on its back cover).
If insiders want to learn about their community, some degree of insider knowledge is needed; exploring culture from the point of view of the subject of the study is known as Ethnography. Acquiring this knowledge can take years, an investment that will deter most researchers. Insightful insider commentary is most likely to come from insiders.
These days, insiders who write usually have blogs. Gerald Weinberg was an insider of times gone by, who wrote popular books for insiders about consulting in the software business; perhaps the most well known being “The Psychology of Computer Programming” (which really ought to be titled “The Sociology of Computer Programming”).
Who might be the consumers of research by anthropologists of software system development (assuming that a non-trivial amount eventually gets done)?
There are important outsiders, such as lawmakers looking to regulate.
Insiders only ever get to experience a sliver of the culture of software communities. The considered experiences of others can provide interesting insights, in particular learning about how teams working within other application domains operate.
Those seeking to change company culture ought to be looking to anthropology as a source of ideas for things that might work, or not.
History deals with the outcomes of past human behavior and culture, and there are a handful of historians of computing.
Historians of computing
Who are the historians of computing? The requirement I used for deciding who qualifies (for this post), is that the person has written multiple papers on the subject over a period that is much longer than their PhD thesis (several people have written a history of some aspect of computing PhDs, and then gone on to research other areas).
Maarten Bullynck. An academic who is a historian of mathematics and has become interested in software; use HAL to find his papers, e.g., What is an Operating System? A historical investigation (1954–1964).
Martin Campbell-Kelly. An academic who has spent his research career investigating computing history, primarily with a software orientation. Has written extensively on a wide variety of software topics. His book “From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry” is still on my pile of books waiting to be read (but other historian cite it extensively). His thesis: “Foundations of computer programming in Britain, 1945-55″, can be freely downloadable from the British Library; registration required.
Paul E. Ceruzzi. An academic and museum curator; interested in aeronautics and computers. I found the one book of his that I have read, ok; others might like it more than me. Others cite him and he wrote an interesting paper on Konrad Zuse (The Early Computers of Konrad Zuse, 1935 to 1945).
James W. Cortada. Ex-IBM (1974-2012) and now working at the Charles Babbage Institute. Written extensively on the history of computing. More of a hardware than software orientation. Written lots of detail oriented books and must have pole position for most extensive collection of material to cite (his end notes are very extensive). His “The Digital Flood: The Diffusion of Information Technology Across the U.S., Europe, and Asia” is likely to be the definitive work on the subject for some time to come. For me this book is spoiled by the author towing the company line in his analysis of the IBM antitrust trial; my analysis of the work Cortada cites reaches the opposite conclusion.
Nathan Ensmenger. An academic; more of a people person than hardware/software. His paper Letting the Computer Boys Take Over contains many interesting insights. His book The Computer Boys Take Over Computers, Programmers, and the Politics of Technical Expertise is a combination of topics that have been figured out, backed-up with references, and topics still being figured out (I wish he would not cite Datamation, a trade mag back in the day, so often).
Kenneth S. Flamm. An academic who has held senior roles in government. Writes from a industry evolution, government interests, economic perspective. The books: “Targeting the Computer: Government Support and International Competition” and “Creating the Computer: Government, Industry and High Technology” are packed with industry related economic data and covers all the major industrial countries.
Michael S. Mahoney. An academic who is sadly no longer with us. A historian of mathematics before becoming primarily involved with software.
Jeffrey R. Yost. An academic. I have only read his book “Making IT Work: A history of the computer services industry”, which was really a collection of vignettes about people, companies and events; needs some analysis. Must try to track down some of his papers (which are not available via his web page :-(.
Who have I missed? This list is derived from papers/books I have encountered while working on a book, not an active search for historians. Suggestions welcome.
Updates
Completely forgot Kenneth S. Flamm, despite enjoying both his computer books.
Forgot Paul E. Ceruzzi because I was unimpressed by his “A History of Modern Computing”. Perhaps his other books are better.
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