bdd - bias driven development

by Mario Fuscomario.fusco@gmail.com@mariofusco

Bias DrivenDevelopment

A bias is a thinking

pattern that leads to

systematic mistakes of

judgment

1. Too much information: we are overloaded by information, so we aggressively filter. Some of the what we leave out is actually useful and important

2. Not enough meaning: we imagine details that were filled in by our assumptions, and construct meaning and stories that aren't really there.

3. Need to act fast: quick decisions can be seriously flawed. Some of the quick reactions and decisions we jump to are unfair and counter-productive

4. What should we remember?: our memory reinforces errors. Some of the stuff we remember for later just makes all of the above systems more biased

Framing effect: people react to a particular choice in different ways depending on how it is presented

Choice-supportive bias: when you choose something, you tend to feel positive about it, even if that choice has flaws

Confirmation bias: seeking and prioritising information that confirms your existing beliefs

Well travelled road effect: travellers estimate the time taken to traverse routes differently depending on their familiarity with the route. Frequently travelled routes are assessed as taking a shorter time than unfamiliar routes

Overconfidence: some of us are too confident about our abilities, and this causes us to take greater risks in our daily lives

The amount of damages that you can cause with a wrong decision is proportional to the level of overconfidence with which you take it

Law of triviality (or bikeshedding): giving disproportionate weight to trivial issues

Narrative bias: refers to tendency to make sense of the world through stories

Bandwagon effect: believing or doing something because people around you believe or do it

Placebo effect: when simply believing that something will have a certain effect on you causes it to have that effect

Not inventedhere syndrome

IKEA effect: consumers place a disproportionately high value on products they partially created

Pro-innovation bias: when a proponent of an innovation tends to overvalue its usefulness and undervalue its limitations

Semmelweis effect is a metaphor for the tendency to reject new evidence or new knowledge because it contradicts established norms

Ostrich effect: the decision to ignore dangerous or negative information by “burying” one’s head in the sand, like an ostrich

Dunning-Kruger Effect: unskilled individuals overestimate their abilities and experts underestimate theirs

Availability heuristic: overestimate the importance of information that is easy to recall

Bias blind spot: we recognize the impact of biases on the judgement of others, while failing to see the impact of biases on our decisions

A non-repeatable process producing

few great successes and

many miserable failures

We got what we deserved for making software

development a craftsmanship instead of an

engineering discipline

We are engineers, not craftsmen or even worse artists

Those who cannot develop software,teach software development methodologies

Life is easier on giants' shoulders

It's a curious thing about software industry: not only we do not learn from our mistakes, we also don't learn from our successes

- Keith Braithwaite

Listen to listen, not to take a pause and think what you'll say next

Measure

Measure

Measure

Enlarge your professional toolbox

I said professional

=

… and yes, I am biased too

Newer does NOT always mean better

Dubito ergo Cogito