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Week 6 Lecture - Reflection of Fishman "They Write the Right Stuff" (1996) Reading


During the lecture, we reflected on the assigned reading: Fishman, "They Write the Right Stuff" (1996)

Summary of Paper


  • The NASA process stifles creativity but that is the point
  • People working at the company have to channel their creativity into changing the process not changing the software
  • 12 of 22 members are women
  • They work strictly 8-5 unlike coders unlike in companies such as Microsoft where late nights are common
  • Its all about the process that allows them to work normal hours, stay on budget and deliver on time

  1. The product is only as good as the plan for the product - plan the most minute detail before commencing writing the code - their requirements are almost " blueprint like detail
  2. The best teamwork is rivalry team work
  3. Have a database on why, how, when etc. code was changed and also a database describing every error dating back 20 years. They’ve accumulated so much data that they’ve been able to create software to predict future errors
  4. Don’t just fix the mistakes - fix whatever permitted the mistake in the first place





Discussion

  • The process at NASA stifles creativity but is there not still a degree of creativity? Is creativity not involved in anything that requires change?
  • Creativity just happens differently - locked in early on
  • Not a normal industry
  • This makes sense in high risk industries e.g. pacemakers, nuclear plants
  • Some forced by regulation
  • May not work in other industries which need to adapt quickly, need to experiment, fail fast etc
  • Engineer who left the org did not enjoy working in the jockey, pizza environment as he had become indoctrinated in this culture
  • Quality, Cost, Time, Scope
  • Where are we with the variables
  • This org is optimizing?
  • Quality is fixed
  • Cost is a variable
  • Scope - Fixed primarily, overall goal stays constant
  • Time: Variable if necessary- not a free variable, they don’t want to use it as a variable but if they identify a flaw they will pull release date


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