Computational Science + Informatics = Software Development

1970s At university, I studied Physics and:

• Computer Science

but it had very little to do with computers. It was far more about becoming a

• Computer Programmer

1980s When I started work I heard about the increasing formalisation of the software development process and I wanted to be a

• Software Engineer

1990s I’d moved into server management by the time I qualified as a

• Chartered Information Systems Engineer

which fit in with my thinking that information is the important resource in any organisation but took me no closer to knowing how to make great software efficiently. I became disillusioned by watching people trying to apply the rigorous methods of hard engineering to the uncertainties and unknown complexities of software. I became interested in prototyping, incremental delivery and Agile.

2000s I was increasingly drawn to the idea that constructing software is a design discipline and that a software developer needed to be a

• Software Craftsman

2010s After a few years working with an agile software team, I decided I wanted to try writing software again myself. A few weeks ago, an online MIT course on Python programming introduced me to an idea that I felt very comfortable with: a good developer is a

• Computational Scientist (I’d settle for ‘Computing Scientist’)

and I’d add the option

• Informatician, which overlaps with what librarians do now

Agile development processes are adaptations of the scientific method, to research what customers want and work out how to give it to them in the way that meets their opinion of best value, and I don’t see why software developers can’t be their own customer. Every great new software component starts off as someone’s experiment.

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Software Life-cycle. Part 2 – From Craftsmanship to Computational Science

I decided to learn the programming language Python. I was steered towards the MIT OpenCourseware ‘Introduction to Computer Science and Programming’ 6.00 course, taught by Prof. Eric Grimson and Prof. John Guttag (they say it is a course about computational thinking.)

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-00-introduction-to-computer-science-and-programming-fall-2008/video-lectures/

As the first lecture felt a bit basic, at great personal risk of uncovering ‘a spoiler’, I skipped on to the course summary in the last lecture to see if it was worth sticking around. I found it inspirational. Prof. John Guttag explains computation in the context of ‘The Scientific Method’. I’ve since realised that his explanation maps with great accurately onto Agile iterative methods. Agilists aren’t engineers, we’re scientists again. Engineering Project Management uses experience of similar previous projects. Why would you ever write similar software twice? Most of the work is already done. Every change to a computational system should be R&D.

Every Scrum Sprint is a suite of computational experiments. The Product Owner is our test subject. This feels right. I never felt like a computer scientist. In James Gleich’s ‘The Information’, he explains that Alan Turing introduced Babbage’s mechanical Difference Engine when talking to non-specialist, to emphasise that computing is an abstract concept, independent from computers and electricity. I’ve always had a computational scientist trying to get out <Woo asplodes>.