diamond@tkou02.enet.dec.com (diamond@tkovoa) (07/11/90)
In newsgroup comp.object, in article <5339@stpstn.UUCP>, cox@stpstn.UUCP (Brad Cox) writes: || There *is* a silver bullet, and I believe that our competitors in || the far east are using it already. Even though they're far behind in || software technology today, they're *already* doing one to two orders || of magnitude than we are in software defect rates (some companies || report 0.008 defects per KSLOC, vs 1-3 defects/KSLOC typical, .01-.1 || for critical software, according to McGarry and Basili figures). || Simplifying greatly, the difference seems to be that they're || focusing on the *product* whereas we're focusing on the *process*; || which is one way of phrasing the paradigm shift I'm referring to. In article <3835@kim> kim@spock (Kim Letkeman) writes: >I'm partial to the data put forth by DeMarco and Lister that there is >a significant (order of magnitude+) difference between the output of >the best software designers versus the worst in terms of time required >to completion of a project and defect rate (and, one has to assume >long term maintainability.) They carry it further and show that there >is approximately a 3x difference for those above the median versus >those below. More likely, an order of magnitude between the best and the AVERAGE. (I do about five times average when permitted, and I've known a few who do better.) Between average and worst is surely several more orders of magnitude. >This would allow for another theory as to why our competitors in the >far east are doing very well in this area. The information that I am >regularly fed by news services leads me to believe that they have a >rather competitive and selective society. Perhaps they simply have an >overall higher quality population of software design staff (more >talent, better training, whatever.) They may also not have our >designer ego problem - meaning that they may adhere more to >established practices and standards (using software IC equivalents?) >rather than forging a new direction every time the opportunity is >presented. If told to obey established practices and standards, they do so. The existence or quality of practices and standards still varies from company to company. Perhaps the biggest factor is that the usual stereotype of Japanese society is turned on its head. If a nail sticks out, Japanese society hammers it down, while American society does not. However, in a high-tech company, if an engineer sticks out, American (Americanized) managers hammer it down, while Japanese (style) managers might not. They don't necessarily act on suggestions, but they listen. || I do admit to more than passing interest that we who view ourselves || as 'the software development community' not discover that our || consumers have done to us what they did to an automobile industry || that proved more attuned to its own interests, rather than its || consumers'. >A frightening thought. Just today, in soc.culture.japan, there were a set of articles quoting an American in Japan, a successful distributor of software. He feels these same concerns considerably more strongly and urgently. Readers interested i this topic might look for those articles. Follow-ups to this article have been directed to comp.misc,soc.culture.japan since they've drifted from comp.object. -- Norman Diamond, Nihon DEC diamond@tkou02.enet.dec.com This is me speaking. If you want to hear the company speak, you need DECtalk.