David Zubrow

Software quality and the Capability Maturity Model

A bout the time Fred Brooks was warning us there was not likely to be a single, “silver bullet” solution to the essential difficulties of developing software [3], Watts Humphrey and others at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) were busy putting together the set of ideas that was to become the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) for Software. The CMM adopted the opposite of the quick-fix silver bullet philosophy. It was intended to be a coherent, ordered set of incremental improvements, all having experienced success in the field, packaged into a roadmap that showed how effective practices could be built on one another in a logical progression (see “The Capability Maturity Model for Software” sidebar). Far from a quick fix, it was

Patterns of Social Interaction and Learning to Write: Some Effects of Network Technologies.

This study examined the effects of computer network technologies on teacher-student and student-student interactions in a writing course emphasizing multiple drafts and collaboration. Two sections used traditional modes of communication (face-to-face, paper, and phone); two other sections, in addition to using traditional modes, used electronic modes (electronic mail, bulletin boards, and so on). Patterns of social interaction were measured at two times: 6 weeks into the semester and at the end of the semester. Results indicate that teachers in the networked sections interacted more with their students than did teachers in the regular sections. In addition, it was found that teachers communicated more electronically with less able students than with more able students and that less able students communicated more electronically with other students.

Cultural socialization to computing in college

Today many people have their first sustained encounter with computing on college campuses. In part this experience consists of learning to use a machine. But in larger part this experience consists of encoutering an alien culture. A socialization model of that encounter and research based on that model are presented. Freshmen at two universities were surveyed and their responses about computer science courses were compared with their responses about other freshmen courses. Consistent with the model, students were more likely to report reality shock, confusion, control attempts, anger, and withdrawal in their computing courses than in other courses. This pattern was less typical of students in the teaching-oriented university than in the research-oriented one. In addition to the organizational difference, three factors were associated with fewer negative outcomes: being male, having taken a computing course in high school, and majoring in science or engineering in college. However, even male, experienced, engineering, and science students encountered computing as an alien culture.

Performance Information in School Systems: Perspectives from Organization Theory

The nature of performance information is explored empirically through data describing administrator behaviors and preferences, and conceptually through a pure cybernetic model and a more organizationally-realistic administrative model. Implications from the latter model are derived for both school system administrators and school system critics.

Intergrating measurement with improvement: an action-oriented approach: experience report

In 1986, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) was tasked to design, develop, deploy, and maintain a health care system. Over the last ten years, extensive measurement data has been collected and analyzed. By setting goals in terms of a few key indicators, establishing baselines for those indicators, and measuring success in terms of the baseline, management easily monitors development trends and the impacts of process improvement activities. This paper describes the measurement program implemented within SAICs health care software development organization, illustrates how the measurements are used to influence process improvement, and concludes with general observations and lessons learned.