A while back I tweeted about critical mass of software:

Critical Mass of Code - past which the changeability of the code is infeasible, requiring that it be completely rewritten.

An elaboration of this might be:

Critical Mass of Software: the state of a software system when the cost of changing it (enhancement or correcting defects) is less economical than re-writing it.

This graph illustrates a hypothetical project where the cost of change increases over time (the shape of which reminds me of a thresher shark):

In a previous rant about the misuse of the term mitigate in the context of risk management I listed the following strategies (I call them MARTA) for managing a given risk:

• Mitigate - Reduce the severity of its impact
• Avoid - Don't do the thing that makes the risk possible
• Reduce - Make the risk less likely to happen
• Transfer - Move the impact of the problem to another party (e.g. insure such as paid insurance or outsource with penalties for failure)
• Accept - Do nothing or set aside budget to cope with the impact

I recently found myself having to explain this and used the analogy of crossing a busy road with fast-moving cars. What's the risk? Well, you might get hit by a car.

The 4th Annual Conference of the Association of Software Testing (CAST) 2009

Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 13-16, 2009

Serving Our Stakeholders

Opening Keynote by: Dr. Jonathan Koomey

Closing Keynote by: Robert Sabourin & Tim Coulter

Invited Speakers: Mike Dwyer and Kevin Brennan

The 4th Annual Conference of the Association of Software Testing (CAST) 2009

Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 13-16, 2009

Serving Our Stakeholders

Opening Keynote by: Dr. Jonathan Koomey

Closing Keynote by: Robert Sabourin & Tim Coulter

Invited Speakers: Mike Dwyer and Kevin Brennan

No further commentary needed.

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Scott Barber

President & Chief Technologist, PerfTestPlus, Inc.

On my last trip to the USA a month ago, I went to the Getty Center in Los Angeles and to Gap Corporate Headquarters in San Francisco, and saw great art at both. At the Getty, I had heard there was an Bernini exhibition, which I didn’t think would be that interesting not knowing much about Bernini. When I got to the Center, I realized there was some amazing sculpture in it. I joined a guided tour, all high tech with the tour leader having a microphone headset and the particpants all with headphone headsets. The tour was truly from the guide’s context: we started by entering a side door into the last room to see some masterworks, then jumped around from room to room but all linked with an fantastic narrative, The sculpture was truly amazing, not just for the detail in cloth, lace, hair and skin that looked like real people covered in marble dust, but also for the amazing “speaking likeness” as if they were just about to talk. A truly amazing cultural treasure, and returning soon to Italy. There are some pictures here and then this article has pictures with audio narrative from Getty staff (click the link).

I flew up to San Francisco for Agile Open California, hosted by Gap at San Bruno. While there was some interesting modern art including a life size giraffe (in a 3 story high atrium) that you could view from various angles as you climbed a staircase next to it, one attendee was an artist called Elizabeth McClellan who is a traditional artist, but who was using her skills in an fascinating way as a visual facilitator. Elizabeth created half a dozen visualizations of sessions and discussions capturing key ideas and images in what were truly modern works of art, but with a strong practical focus. On an IT project, I could see key planning meetings or other sessions being captured in this way, and the posters remaining as reminders of project culture that could be displayed both as art and project statements.

Oh, and there was some other very tasty LA art, a magnificent gigantic blended iced mocha I consumed for brunch while sitting al fresco opposite the Spanish styled clock tower in Westwood

Software testing is improved by good bug reporting

I recently completed (successfully, I might add) the second of the Association for Software Testing's all online, free to members Black Box Software Testing course. Each of these courses is four weeks in length. I've been involved with this program since years before it became a program, and I am an instructor for the first course in the series, called Foundations. For this course, called Bug Advocacy, I was a student.