QUESTION: WHERE IS THE C IN E-TYPE SYSTEMS?

ANSWER: IN TENT MAKING

Patrick M. Bailey, MS

Discussion Points Scope Background

Information systems Is there a link? Seeking Answers

The nature of E-Systems Tent making opportunities

With the user Between developers

Software engineering and Faith

IS ProfessionalsIS professionals must have a broad business and

real world perspective.IS professionals must have strong analytical and

critical thinking skills.IS professionals must have interpersonal

communication and team skills and have strong ethical principles.

IS professionals must design and implement information technology solutions that enhance organizational performance.

Source: IS 2002 Model Curriculum and Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in

Information Systems Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)Association for Information Systems (AIS)

Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP)

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. … It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. ….I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. “-Charles Swindol

“The way you act, your feelings, and even your private opinions will influence your team.” - Watts Humphrey, TSP, Leading a Development Team

“Welcome changing requirements, even late in development...” This is a statement of attitude. – Robert C. Martin, Agile Software Development

Attitude

We asked professed Christians in the work force about the link between their

faith and what they do.

Initial Questions How long have you been a software engineer or

involved in software engineering? What best describes your professional life? What best describes your organization? What best describes your view of integrating

faith with the practice of software engineering? What best describes the reason for your

participation in this study? What best describes your history as a Christian? Briefly describe any specific area where your

faith has influenced how you develop software. Skill sets: C, C++, Java, Perl, COBOL, Project

management, Linux, etc…

Involvement in SW Development

Active; 53Analyst; 8

Manager; 8

Other; 14

Motivation

Share Per-sonal View;

30

Encouraged by Others,

13

Interested in Hearing More; 18

Other; 22

Other Reasons to Participate

“Just because you asked” “I have some sense of how my faith

influences my practice, but am interested in how others approach the area”

“I value the education I received at Calvin and I respect their desire to do the study. If my involvement can assist in any way, I would be glad to participate.”

“Just for grins”

Where does faith play a role?

All Aspects; 44

Primarily in Design; 10

Does Not Apply; 19

Other; 9

Sample Comments It affects how I view my work to ensure it is

of the highest quality to bring glory to God. My faith leads me to be more patient with my team and our testing department. It has given me courage to admit to mistakes and aim for correction.

My work ethic has probably been influenced by my faith, but that's about it

Frankly, I don't see any connection between one's faith and software development

I prayed for my hacks to work, and they did!

Phone Interview Team

Jared Staal (07)Information Systems

Jessica Holtrop (07)Communication Arts and Sciences

Michael BaileyReligion

Basic Approach

Talk about their daily life and let the Christian perspectives naturally evolve from the conversation.

General Observations Some reasons why a link is found:

Stewardship Craftsmanship (do it for the glory of the Lord) Opportunity to witness (tent making)

Hiring practices Technical ability carries the most weight Character is important, but difficult to

measure Variety of methods exists, but less than perfect

General communication ability is critical No one said explicitly they consider a person’s

faith

General Observations Development platforms

Open source is appreciated for the community of giving

Open source is not always preferred. “The problem with open source is that an

application can have the focus of a lot of developers, but if it is no longer exciting, support begins to wane.”

“I’m not adamant about everything being open source.”

Faith In the Workplace I think about what does it mean to do my

work and do it in excellent ways. I’m called to excellence and helping teams to do that. I continue to wrestle how my faith ought to clearly shape the way I do technology.

Put your focus on building relationships.

[Using my skill] is my form of tent making.

Tent Making in E-Type Systems

System Types S – Small systems that can be proven

mathematically P – Approximation of a problem. Changes

are made to come closer to solving the problem. (a chess game)

E – Think of the E as in “Enterprise” Systems that live in the “real” world. The problem they solve is likely to change. Acceptance is based on perception.

Lehman’s Laws

Relationships

Geeks and suits don’t communicate well.

Geeks and suits don’t respect each other.

Technology people and business people don’t trust each other

Users and Technology

Maybe the problem is …Human cognition has a problem —

anecdotal thinking comes naturally whereas scientific thinking does not… Anecdotal associations are so powerful that they cause people to ignore contrary evidence.

Michael Schermer, Jama and the Mountebank, Nature Magazine, Vol 451, 7 Feb 2008, pg 628

24

Imagine several dozen pages of this…

1. The system shall allow entry of a patron’s library card number.2. The system shall flag patron records as non-useable if there is an

overdue book associated with the account.3. The system shall flag patron records as non-useable if there is an

overdue book associated with the account.4. The system shall allow entry of a book identification number for

checkout.5. The system shall maintain the status of a book. Statuses include

available, checked-out, reserved and destroyed.6. The system shall maintain the status of a video. Statuses include

available, checked-out, reserved, being-viewed, on-order and destroyed.

7. The system shall mark a book as checked out for a patron provided the patron ID is entered, the patron record is not flagged and the book status is available.

8. The system shall mark a video as checked out for a patron provided the patron ID is entered, the patron record is not flagged and the video status is available.

9. The system shall apply a date two weeks from the current date as the due date for a book.

10. The system shall apply a date one week from the current date as the due date for a video.

25

Compared to …When a patron brings books or videos to the checkout desk, the clerk will

do the following:

Request the library card from the patron and enter the number into the system.

The system will let the clerk know if the patron may check out materials.

The clerk will enter the identification number of each book and video into the system.

The system will create a receipt listing material checked out and each due date. Books are allowed to be checked out for two weeks and videos are allowed to be checked out for one week.

“Ship first, test later.”

Testing View DifferencesI = Internal View: The tendency of the person responding is to have a thorough knowledge of the code itself before determining a testing approach.

S = Specification View: The respondent places greater value on the design and specifications of a system to determine a testing approach.

B = Business Value: The respondent has more of an “expert” customer/user view of how to test software. Further, economic factors are a significant factor in their consideration.

R = “Real World”/ Randomness: The respondent believes that most things are unpredictable and that testing in the “real world” is typically the most likely approach to discovering the majority of faults or patterns. This does not necessarily imply recklessness.

I S B R0

1020304050607080

Project Managers

I S B R0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Software Developers

Project Mgrs I S B R1 0 11 7 32 3 10 6 2*3 6 4 10 14 1 11 7 25 1 7 7 66 4 4 10 37 1 4 15 18 11 4 2 49 2 2 8 9

10 5 5 4 7Totals 34 62 76 38

SW Developers I S B R1 6 14 2 62 5 15 3 53 7 8 10 34 3 14 3 85 2 10 8 86 4 17 6 17 2 10 13 38 19 0 2 79 4 8 8 8

10 10 5 9 4Sub Totals 62 101 64 53

Agile Practices Business people make the business

decision, technical people make the technical decision

Limit work to 40 hours a week Determine the quality desired first (test

driven development) Iterative development (better

communication)

Talk the Talk“O Lord, I have never been eloquent…I am

slow of speech and tongue.”

…Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said “What about your brother Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well..I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do.”

NIV, Exodus 4:10-16

Mike McIntosh

Mike McIntoshProject Manager, Amway

Against Optimism…humble and human share

the same Latin root: humus. To be humble and to be human is to know oneself to be “of the earth” and not one of the gods. The Hebrews knew God made Adam from the earth. Such humility makes us teachable and ready to learn from our mistakes.

Tent Making Between Developers

What is the value of one line of code?

Expertise

Since the cost of fixing a defect often increases the longer the defect goes undetected, early detection can reduce redevelopment and rework costs. For example, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (a NASA software supplier) estimates it has saved $7.5 million over 300 inspections, yielding an average cost savings of $25,000 per inspection [2].

Tyran, Craig K. et al, Improving Software Inspections with Group Process Support COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM September 2002/Vol. 45, No. 9 pg 87

Examples of Christian Influence

A rule of thumb for reviews:

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Ephesians 4:29

Pair Programming

    9 Two are better than one,        because they have a good return for their work:     10 If one falls down,        his friend can help him up.        But pity the man who falls        and has no one to help him up!

2 John :12

I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

More than data interfaces

The system we are building.

MainframeDatabase

Web server

Report Request

Report data

Nightly feed

Updated Records

Maintenance Some perception that something is finished.

Up to 75% of a system is developed after it is “finished”

Programmer ratio reduction of 7 to 1 Often entry level developers Maintenaners spend approximately 50% of their

time studying code Go from different pockets of ownership to full

ownership Pride

Not exciting Not as challenging

Tent Making with Him

Some challenges we consider

“You have a lot of young people making a lot of money who care more about themselves than helping others,” explained one Internet CEO. Maybe so, but such an explanation misses the broader ethos of cyber culture. High-tech endeavors are usually organized around short-term goals and immediate practical needs ... Cyber culture is so focused on the here and now that it implicitly rejects the human need for a long-term vision, let alone a moral compass.

-Quentin J. Schultze, Habits of the High Tech Heart

Ken Shafer…design is His. Stewardship

is ours. Software is not an artifact to be “created” where in our mind we “own” the software product. Rather, software and its development is a means of cultivating an awaremenss of who we are and what role we are to play in a Master Plan.

Ken ShaferConsultant, Indianapolis, IN

Coming Closer to Him“There is the creativity link. I see creativity being part of joy. It is certainly an attribute of God. Realizing how explicit you must be, gives you some appreciation for the wisdom and sovereignty of God.” - Response to questionnaire

“I talk to God while I develop software, because He is smarter than I am and has a better plan. Phone interview comment.”

ASCII ValuesBinary Decimal Character01000001 65 A01000010 66 B

Craftsmanship

"Sometime look at a novice workman … and compare his expression with that of a craftsman whose work you know is excellent …  The craftsman isn't ever following a single line of instruction. He's making decisions as he goes along.  For that reason he'll be absorbed and attentive to what he's doing even though he doesn't deliberately contrive this.  His motions and the machine are in a kind of harmony.  He isn't following any set of written instructions because the nature of the material at hand determines his thoughts and motions, which simultaneously change the nature of the material at hand.  The material and his thoughts are changing together in a progression of changes until his mind's at rest at the same time the material's right.“Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

…“craftsman” or “craftsmen”

appear at least 41 times

in the New International Version of the

Bible.

Dynamic Link, pg 17

Data Stewardship Collecting

information is expensive

Duplicating it is cheap

Ref: Database In Peril, Nature 435, 1010 - 1011 (22 Jun 2005) New

Managing Agreement

Leadership

ManagementPower

CULTURE

SOP

Strategic planning

Authority

Role Specification

Force

incentives

Role Modeling

Religion

Tradition

Measurements

Responsibility

Agreement on how the world works.

Agreement

on

what

we

want