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."
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
Authors have earned$10,261,184writing, 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
The Leanpub 45-day 100% Happiness Guarantee
Within 45 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.
See full terms
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
C++20
Rainer GrimmC++20 is the next big C++ standard after C++11. As C++11 did it, C++20 changes the way we program modern C++. This change is, in particular, due to the big four of C++20: ranges, coroutines, concepts, and modules.
500 QUIZ MMG COMMENTATI
ALS Medicina Generale500 Quiz degli ULTIMI Concorsi di Medicina Generale (2014/2016/2017/2018/2019)
Riassunti e suddivisi per area con Griglia risposte vuota e Griglia risposte esatte Ministeriale
Commentati con link alla fonte per approfondimento e ausilio allo studio
R Programming for Data Science
Roger D. PengThis book brings the fundamentals of R programming to you, using the same material developed as part of the industry-leading Johns Hopkins Data Science Specialization. The skills taught in this book will lay the foundation for you to begin your journey learning data science. Printed copies of this book are available through Lulu.
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.
Atomic Kotlin
Bruce Eckel and Svetlana IsakovaFor both beginning and experienced programmers! From the author of the multi-award-winning Thinking in C++ and Thinking in Java together with a member of the Kotlin language team comes a book that breaks the concepts into small, easy-to-digest "atoms," along with exercises supported by hints and solutions directly inside IntelliJ IDEA!
Continuous Delivery Pipelines
Dave FarleyThis practical handbook provides a step-by-step guide for you to get the best continuous delivery pipeline for your software.
C++ Best Practices
Jason TurnerLevel up your C++, get the tools working for you, eliminate common problems, and move on to more exciting things!
Visualise, document and explore your software architecture
Simon BrownA short guide to visualising, documenting and exploring your software architecture.
Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science
Alexander Shen, Alexander S. Kulikov, Vladimir Podolskii, and Aleksandr GolovnevThis book supplements the DM for CS Specialization at Coursera and contains many interactive puzzles, autograded quizzes, and code snippets. They are intended to help you to discover important ideas in discrete mathematics on your own. By purchasing the book, you will get all updates of the book free of charge when they are released.
Functional Design and Architecture
Alexander GraninSoftware Design in Functional Programming, Design Patterns and Practices, Methodologies and Application Architectures. How to build real software in Haskell with less efforts and low risks. The first complete source of knowledge.
Top Bundles
- #1
Software Architecture for Developers: Volumes 1 & 2 - Technical leadership and communication
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
Software Architecture and Design Practice Reference
2 Books
Dive deeper in Software Architecture with the Design Practice Reference. Learn all about software architecture and design from the books in this bundle:Software Architecture covers topics from quality attributes to designing and modeling components, interfaces, connectors, and containers, all the way to services and microservices. The Design... - #6
Linux Administration Complet
4 Books
Ce lot comprend les quatre volumes du Guide Linux Administration :Linux Administration, Volume 1, Administration fondamentale : Guide pratique de préparation aux examens de certification LPIC 1, Linux Essentials, RHCSA et LFCS. Administration fondamentale. Introduction à Linux. Le Shell. Traitement du texte. Arborescence de fichiers. Sécurité... - #7
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 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... - #8
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... - #10
Mastering Containers
2 Books
Docker and Kubernetes are taking the world by storm! These books will get you up-to-speed fast! Docker Deep Dive is over 400 pages long, and covers all objectives on the Docker Certified Associate exam.The Kubernetes Book includes everything you need to get up and running with Kubernetes!