Like magic, the laws of physics do not apply to software

For a few months I’ve been arguing that Agile product/service development only works for classes of systems that are not subject to gravity, like software and business processes. After attending a talk on the functional language Clojure by Paul Williams of @birminghamfp at Agile Staffordshire, I discovered this MITOpenCourseWare 6-001 introductory video.

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-001-structure-and-interpretation-of-computer-programs-spring-2005/video-lectures/1a-overview-and-introduction-to-lisp/

I particularly recommend about the first 10 minutes. After that you may accidentally learn Lisp and I’ll deny all responsibility for subsequent brain damage if that happens. Hal Abelson argues that ‘computer science’ is not bound by the rules of physics. Like me, he sees the design of business processes and procedures being within its boundaries. Business procedures are just an attempt to implement processes on people rather than in software, sacrificing reliability for flexibility.

I agree that ‘computer science’ isn’t about computers but I think Lean & Agile methods re-take computation for science, rather than magic or engineering. I’m sticking with ‘computational science’ for now.

Many software people are frustrated by their managers’ attempts at business change. Why do organisations allow general managers with no training in the re-factorisation of complex processes to run business change programmes when they wouldn’t trust them to run a small software project? It’s the same thing, but much harder.

Advertisement