ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage

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JOCCH publishes papers of significant and lasting value in all areas relating to the use of IC T in support of Cultural Heritage, seeking to combine the best of computing science with real attention to any aspect of the cultural heritage sector.

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sometimes it seems
the software process
is implemented
with the intention
of squeezing out any
trace of individuality
and creativity.

ing: “…they’re making me rewrite something that already works!...” Fortunately, his griping was ignored, the director backed the team, and Harold had to rewrite the program to the original design. When the code finally came back for inspection, it matched the design, worked well, and passed inspection easily with relatively few comments and issues.

A Better Team, A Better system

As a team, we noticed an interesting thing: because Harold was a low-achiev-ing programmer, we had become a better team: we had defined and enforced our process more tightly, we had set up and captured metrics more consistently, we had learned to provide better counseling and support to the programmers (especially Harold). Most importantly, we had adopted a team goal and ethic: we would never accept bad work and never simply discard a weaker member of the team who could not perform—we would do what was necessary to allow the person to meet the team’s standards. Provided team members supported these goals, availed themselves of the resources, and produced viable products, they could be a member of our team and the team would take care of them professionally. This higher ethic made us a better team.

Modern physics is learning that the behavior of systems may not be a direct function of the behavior of the parts of a system. Not all cogs in a watch have to be big cogs. Sometimes more optimal behavior in a system can be obtained from less optimal parts. Sometimes the best teams are not made up of all super-heroes and when a team asserts itself to overcome some limitation, even with

its own personnel, it can become better than it would have been without that limitation. This is not to say we should intentionally seek to employ bad programmers; but teams are not disconnected parts like nuts and bolts in a bucket—they are systems. The dynamics of an effective team are more complex and subtle than they sometimes appear and low-performing people may have an effect on a project other than through the products they produce.a

Sometimes it seems the software process is implemented with the intention of squeezing out any trace of individuality and creativity—to make building systems a mindless process. In this team, we were careful not to do this; but we were also careful not to simply allow anyone to change anything, anytime, without consideration of the value and return. We certainly never allowed anyone to make changes simply out of laziness, misunderstanding, or incompetence. And we never let anyone fail.

Harold Redeemed

When Harold had his code approved, he (to the surprise of everyone on the team) remarked “You know, this design is much better than the one I did.” In fact, from that point onward, Harold became a believer in our approach and (to the surprise of everyone in the installation) a vocal evangelist for our team and our processes. He even made a significant contribution to the team’s processes and tools—with the appropriate team reviews and approvals, of course.

The team had defined the highest level of inspection acceptance as an “AS-IS,” meaning no errors of any sort, no minor functional issues, no design questions, no documentation inac-curacies, not even spelling or grammar mistakes. AS-IS was perfection. In nearly 500 inspections we conducted during the project life cycle, only one person on the team ever got an AS-IS on any work product submitted for inspection. That was Harold.

 

Phillip G. Armour ( [e-mail]) is a senior consultant at Corvus International Inc., deer Park, Il.

 

a See J.B. Harvey, How Come Every Time I Get Stabbed in the Back, My Fingerprints are on the Knife? And Other Meditations on Management, Jossey-Bass, 1999.