Re: Development: A Structured Problem Area?

On Tuesday, June 15, 2004, at 6:37:32 PM, Derek Richardson wrote:

> I am unclear about how software exhibits emergent behavior. From my
> understanding of the complexity literature, emergence can occur when
> many independent agents with simple rules interact; the Game of Life
> being an example. I don't see software as being structured in the same
> way - will you volunteer an example?

Two things:

First, it is easy enough to build software such that the program itself has
emergent properties. Genetic alrogithms are a cool high-tech way to do it.
A program that adjusts its behavior using Bayes theorem, or a program
simulating neural nets would also likely exhibit emergent behavior.

More important, however, is that software /development/ is itself full of
emergent behavior. Since software development is basically knowledge
discovery, the impact of the process, the team practices, and most
importantly the individuals and their interactions, makes every project
different.

This calls into some question the notion of "Repeatable" which is offered
by the CMM as a desirable thing. It might not even be a /possible/ thing,
much less desirable.

I hope these notions spark some conversation ...

Ron Jeffries
www.XProgramming.com
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people
always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can
become great." -- Mark Twain.




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