Responding to Significant Software Events
Responding to Significant Software Events
Volume 4: Quality Software Series
About the Book
A Sticky Minds reviewer wrote: "This book focuses on an issue of huge importance to software managers: how to respond appropriately to people (clients, bosses, team members) in difficult, emotionally charged situations."
"The author uses simple but effective models to explain human behavior. He includes examples from the software engineering industry to put these models in contexts familiar to software developers. The models can help all software professionals to understand and deal with conflicts more effectively, using the insights gained from this book every day with software development teams, clients, employees, and personal interactions."
"As the author has pointed out, one of the main questions in software engineering is 'Why do people so often do things wrong when they know how to do them right?' As this book shows, to do the right thing often requires that in a moment of confrontation, you must interact with all points of view, with the needs and fears and personalities of all parties to the issue. The insights, examples, and tools Weinberg provides here can help you become much more effective in working with others. I strongly recommend this book, and the rest of the set, to people who lead software projects and lead project managers themselves."
Reviewer Keith Collyer wrote that he "didn't see how anyone can consider themselves interested in software quality without having some of Gerald Weinberg's books on their shelves (preferably well-thumbed). While I don't always agree with everything that Weinberg says, he does force you to THINK. My only real quibble is that the title of the series limits the perceived coverage to software. In my opinion, the material in these books is applicable in any development activity."
About the Author
Bundles that include this book
Table of Contents
-
Responding To Significant Software Events
-
Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Part III. Significance
-
Chapter 1: Measuring Emotional Significance
-
1.1 A Model of Extracting Significance
- 1.1.1 Some thoughts about feelings
- 1.1.2 Thoughts can give rise to feelings, and vice versa
- 1.1.3 The feeling response
- 1.1.4 Feelings are arbitrary and mysterious, but real.
-
1.2 Observing Incongruence
- 1.2.1 Engineering consequences of incongruence
- 1.2.2 Ratchet Lines
- 1.2.3 Opportunity lines
-
1.3 The Subjective Impact Method
- 1.3.1 Basic questions
- 1.3.2 Key ideas
- 1.3.3 Possible difficulties
- 1.3.4 Example 1
- 1.3.5 Example 2
- 1.4 Feelings are Facts
- 1.5 Helpful Hints and Variations
- 1.6 Summary
- 1.7 Practice
-
1.1 A Model of Extracting Significance
-
Chapter 2: Measuring Failures Before They Happen
-
2.1 What Do Failures Cost?
- 2.1.1 Case history 1: A national bank
- 2.1.2 Case history 2: A public utility
- 2.1.3 Case history 3: A state lottery
- 2.1.4 Case history 4: A broker’s statement
- 2.1.5 Case history 5: A buying club statement
-
2.2 The Universal Pattern of Huge Losses
- 2.2.1 The First Rule of Failure Prevention
- 2.2.2 It doesn’t have to be that way
- 2.2.3 The Second Rule of Failure Prevention
- 2.2.4 Learning from others
-
2.3 The Significance of Failure Sources
- 2.3.1 Frailty
- 2.3.2 Folly
- 2.3.3 Fatuousness
- 2.3.4 Fun
- 2.3.5 Fraud
- 2.3.6 Fanaticism
- 2.3.7 Failure (of Hardware)
- 2.3.8 Fate
- 2.4 Helpful Hints and Variations
- 2.5 Summary
- 2.6 Practice
-
2.1 What Do Failures Cost?
-
Chapter 3: Precision Listening
-
3.1 Listening for Distortions
- 3.1.1 Cause-effect distortion
- 3.1.2 Mind reading
-
3.2 Improper Generalizations
- 3.2.1 Universal quantifiers
- 3.2.2 Necessity and impossibility
- 3.2.3 Hidden source of valuation
-
3.3 Deletions
- 3.3.1 Nominalization
-
3.3.2 Lack of referential index
- 3.3.3. Unspecified nouns or verbs
- 3.3.4 Phrase deletions
-
3.4 Listening for Attitudes About Failure
- 3.4.1 Expected cost of failure
- 3.4.2 The personal significance of failure
- 3.4.3 The subjective probability factor
- 3.4.4 The personal control factor
-
3.5 Listening for an Impending Crisis
- 3.5.1 Talking about the system
- 3.5.2 Talking about the organization
- 3.5.3 Talking about magic
- 3.5.4 Excuses for skipping work
- 3.5.5 Optimistic assumptions
- 3.6 Helpful Hints and Variations
- 3.7. Summary
- 3.8 Practice
-
3.1 Listening for Distortions
- Part IV: Response
-
Chapter 4: Translating Observation Into Action
-
4.1 The Feeling about the Feeling
- 4.1.1 Self-worth
- 4.1.2 Invoking a survival rule
- 4.1.3 Defensive responses
- 4.2 Recognizing Congruence and Incongruence
- 4.3 Crisis Destroys the Ability to Observe
-
4.4 Satir’s Model of Responding
- 4.4.1 Rules for commenting
- 4.4.2 A combination of verbal and nonverbal response.
- 4.4.3 Controlled and uncontrolled nonverbal responses
- 4.4.4 A look at the whole cycle
-
4.5 Decoding the Message Behind the Message
- 4.5.1 Explicit cover-up
- 4.5.2 Removing yourself
- 4.5.3 Ratcheting: a closed cycle of internal responses
- 4.6 Helpful Hints and Variations
- 4.7 Summary
- 4.8 Practice
-
4.1 The Feeling about the Feeling
-
Chapter 5: Observations from the Empathic Position
- 5.1 Three Basic Observer Positions
- 5.2 Participant Observation
-
5.3 Emic Interviewing
- 5.3.1 The interviewing approach
- 5.3.2 Interviewing as intervention
- 5.3.3 Accounting for survey discrepancies
-
5.4 Rumors as Sources of Information
- 5.4.1 Case: “Reviews are slowing our projects.”
- 5.4.2 The rumor envelope
- 5.4.3 Case: Evaluating the cost of one rumor
- 5.4.4 Case: “Rumor of the Month” award
-
5.5 Empathic Analysis
- 5.5.1 Deciphering “crazy” behavior
- 5.5.2 Dealing with gossip
- 5.5.3 Noticing what’s not being talked about
- 5.5.4 Noticing incongruity
- 5.6 Sensing the Mood Internally
- 5.7 Helpful Hints and Variations
- 5.8 Summary
- 5.9 Practice
-
Chapter 6: Dealing With Swarms of Failures
-
6.1 The Terminology of Error
- 6.1.1 Faults and Failures
- 6.1.2 System trouble incident (STI)
- 6.1.3 System fault analysis (SFA)
- 6.1.4 Origin and resolution
- 6.1.5 Severity codes for STIs
- 6.1.6 Major error-handling activities
-
6.2 Measuring Fault Resolution
- 6.2.1 Four major factors
- 6.2.2 Average time to remove an STI
- 6.2.3 Resolver location time (RLT)
- 6.2.4 Time to resolve after location
- 6.2.5 When faults were created
- 6.2.6 Average resolution time per line of code
- 6.2.7 Average size of changes
- 6.3 Helpful Hints and Variations
- 6.4 Summary
- 6.5 Practice
-
6.1 The Terminology of Error
- Part V: Zeroth-Order Measurement
-
Chapter 7: Projects Composed of Measurable Tasks
- 7.1 Any Task Can Be Transformed into a Measurable Project
- 7.2 What is a Project?
-
7.3 Steps to Create a Measurable Project
- 7.3.1 Prepare for an iterative process
- 7.3.2 Identify the customers
- 7.3.3 Identify what should be preserved
- 7.3.4 Select positive, achievable goals
- 7.3.5 State the goal in a measurable way
- 7.3.6 The goal shouldn’t overly constrain the project.
- 7.3.7. Check for obstacles
- 7.3.8 Check for resources
- 7.3.9 Start to plan backward
- 7.4 Incremental Planning in the Face of Uncertainty
- 7.5 Helpful Hints and Variations
- 7.6 Summary
- 7.7 Practice
-
Chapter 8: Communicating About Plans and Progress
-
8.1 Basic Rules of Human Communication Systems
- 8.1.1 Communication always goes on among people.
- 8.1.2 Secret communication channels always develop.
- 8.1.3 Miscommunication always occurs.
- 8.1.4 It’s always harder than you think it’s going to be.
- 8.1.5 Improving one place can make another place harder.
-
8.2 Essentials of a Zeroth-Order Measurement System
- 8.2.1 Openness
- 8.2.2 Honesty
- 8.2.3 Learning from one another
- 8.3 Building in Standard Task Units
- 8.4 Allowing for Reviews
-
8.5 Posting Progress in Public
- 8.5.1 Today line
- 8.5.2 Review status
- 8.5.3 Delayed reviews
- 8.5.4 Delayed starts
-
8.6 Why PPPP Works
- 8.6.1 Trouble can’t be hidden.
- 8.6.2 Trouble is easy to interpret.
- 8.6.3 A congruent message about measurement.
- 8.6.4 It’s easy to see process improvement or degeneration.
- 8.7 Obstacles
- 8.8 Helpful Hints and Variations
- 8.9 Summary
- 8.10 Practice
-
8.1 Basic Rules of Human Communication Systems
-
Chapter 9: Reviews as Measurement Tools
-
9.1 Why Use Reviews?
- 9.1.1 Reviews improve schedule performance.
- 9.1.2 Reviews eliminate wasted work.
- 9.1.3 Reviews are tests.
- 9.1.4 Reviews are training.
-
9.2 Technical Review Summary Report
- 9.2.1 How the measurement was done
- 9.2.2 What the measurement was
- 9.2. 3 Making conservative decisions
- 9.3 Types of Material Reviewed
- 9.4 Helpful Hints and Variations
- 9.5 Summary
- 9.6 Practice
-
9.1 Why Use Reviews?
-
Chapter 10: Requirements: The Foundation of Measurement
- 10.1 Zeroth Law and Zero-Order Measurement
- 10.2 Why Requirements?
-
10.3 Process Models of Requirements
- 10.3.1 Patterns 0 and 1 (Oblivious and Variable)
- 10.3.2 Pattern 2 (Routine)
- 10.3.2 Pattern 3 (Steering)
- 10.3.4 Requirements leakage
- 10.4 Startup Task Acceptance Report
- 10.5 Helpful Hints and Variations
- 10.6 Summary
- 10.7 Practice
- Chapter 11: The Wayfinder
- Appendix A: The Diagram of Effects
-
Appendix B: The Software Engineering Cultural Patterns
- Pattern 0. Oblivious Process
- Pattern 1: Variable Process
- Pattern 2: Routine Process
- Pattern 3: Steering Process
- Pattern 4: Anticipating Process
- Pattern 5: Congruent Process
-
Appendix C. The Satir Interaction Model
- Intake.
- Meaning.
- Significance.
- Response.
-
Appendix D. Control Models
- D.1. The Aggregate Control Model
-
D.2. Cybernetic Control Models
- D.2.1 The system to be controlled (the focus of Patterns 0 and 1)
- D.2.2 The controller (the focus of Pattern 2)
- D.2.3 Feedback control (the focus of Pattern 3)
- Appendix E. The Three Observer Positions
-
Preface
- What Next?
Other books by this author
The Leanpub 60-day 100% Happiness Guarantee
Within 60 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.
See full terms
Do Well. Do Good.
Authors have earned$11,712,765writing, publishing and selling on Leanpub, earning 80% royalties while saving up to 25 million pounds of CO2 and up to 46,000 trees.
Learn more about writing on Leanpub
Free Updates. DRM Free.
If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).
Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers), EPUB (for phones and tablets) and MOBI (for Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.
Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.
Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them
Top Books
- #1
Recipes for Decoupling
Matthias NobackWrite software that survives
- #2
OpenIntro Statistics
David Diez, Christopher Barr, Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel, and OpenIntroA complete foundation for Statistics, also serving as a foundation for Data Science.
Leanpub revenue supports OpenIntro (US-based nonprofit) so we can provide free desk copies to teachers interested in using OpenIntro Statistics in the classroom and expand the project to support free textbooks in other subjects.
More resources: openintro.org.
- #3
CQRS by Example
Carlos Buenosvinos, Christian Soronellas, and Keyvan Akbary- Leverage your Software Architecture skills by learning everything about CQRS in detail with lots of examples
- Develop faster applications by applying CQRS and fostering Read Models and Projections
- Learn how to apply CQRS into a brownfield project from a pragmatic approach
- #4
Maîtriser Apache JMeter
Philippe Mouawad, Bruno Demion (Milamber), and Antonio Gomes RodriguesToute la puissance d'Apache JMeter expliquée par ses commiteurs et utilisateurs experts. De l'intégration continue en passant par le Cloud, vous découvrirez comment intégrer JMeter à vos processus "Agile" et Devops.
If you're looking for the newer english version of this book, go to Master JMeter : From load testing to DevOps
- #5
Ansible for DevOps
Jeff GeerlingAnsible is a simple, but powerful, server and configuration management tool. Learn to use Ansible effectively, whether you manage one server—or thousands.
- #6
C++20 - The Complete Guide
Nicolai M. JosuttisAll new language and library features of C++20 (for those who know previous C++ versions).
The book presents all new language and library features of C++20. Learn how this impacts day-to-day programming, to benefit in practice, to combine new features, and to avoid all new traps.
Buy early, pay less, free updates.
Other books:
- #7
Jetpack Compose internals
Jorge CastilloJetpack Compose is the future of Android UI. Master how it works internally and become a more efficient developer with it. You'll also find it valuable if you are not an Android dev. This book provides all the details to understand how the Compose compiler & runtime work, and how to create a client library using them.
- #8
The PowerShell Scripting and Toolmaking Book
Don Jones and Jeff HicksLearn the patterns, practices, and details of PowerShell Scripting and Toolmaking from the industry's two most recognized experts on the subject.
- #9
The C4 model for visualising software architecture
Simon BrownA guide to visualising your software architecture with the C4 model.
- #10
Mastering STM32 - Second Edition
Carmine NovielloWith more than 1200 microcontrollers, STM32 is probably the most complete ARM Cortex-M platform on the market. This book aims to be the most complete guide around introducing the reader to this exciting MCU portfolio from ST Microelectronics and its official CubeHAL and STM32CubeIDE development environment.
Top Bundles
- #1
Software Architecture
2 Books
"Software Architecture for Developers" is a practical and pragmatic guide to modern, lightweight software architecture, specifically aimed at developers. You'll learn:The essence of software architecture.Why the software architecture role should include coding, coaching and collaboration.The things that you really need to think about before... - #2
CCIE Service Provider Ultimate Study Bundle
2 Books
Piotr Jablonski, Lukasz Bromirski, and Nick Russo have joined forces to deliver the only CCIE Service Provider training resource you'll ever need. This bundle contains a detailed and challenging collection of workbook labs, plus an extensively detailed technical reference guide. All of us have earned the CCIE Service Provider certification... - #4
Pattern-Oriented Memory Forensics and Malware Detection
2 Books
This training bundle for security engineers and researchers, malware and memory forensics analysts includes two accelerated training courses for Windows memory dump analysis using WinDbg. It is also useful for technical support and escalation engineers who analyze memory dumps from complex software environments and need to check for possible... - #6
All the Books of The Medical Futurist
6 Books
We put together the most popular books from The Medical Futurist to provide a clear picture about the major trends shaping the future of medicine and healthcare. Digital health technologies, artificial intelligence, the future of 20 medical specialties, big pharma, data privacy, digital health investments and how technology giants such as Amazon... - #8
The Python Craftsman
3 Books
The Python Craftsman series comprises The Python Apprentice, The Python Journeyman, and The Python Master. The first book is primarily suitable for programmers with some experience of programming in another language. If you don't have any experience with programming this book may be a bit daunting. You'll be learning not just a programming...
