RE: Development: A Structured Problem Area?

Quoting Andrew Hunt <andy-CFUc0I3L9bbJyQSMb4qrZi4gXjV2jqTv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> On Wed, 2004-06-16 at 22:34, Derek Richardson wrote:
> 
> > What about Pragmatic Process Automation (this isn't flamebait, it's a
> > genuine question, as I haven't seen the book and don't know its
> > contents)?
> 
> It's about automating -- and making repeatable -- those mechanical
> aspects of a project that *should* be repeatable.  That is, the
> production, not its design or implementation.

So some things can be automated and others cannot. Production falls in the first
category and design and implementation in the second. What is the difference
between these two categories scuh that one is automatable and the other is
not?

> It's about taking source code and reliably producing a pile of bits in a
> form the end-user can install.  That process must be repeatable and
> reproducible for any previous point in time. 
> 
> Take a car maker for an analogy.  The production line that produces the
> cars is automated and repeatable.  It makes the same car time and time
> again.  The production line has nothing whatsoever to do with making the
> *design* of the car repeatable.  That's a separate activity, and is the
> primary one in the case of software.

I wonder about the assumption (which I intuit) here that car manufacturing is
less of an "expert" activity than design. I think it may be rooted in the fact
that manufacturing is a less "elite" activity than design, perhaps because it
is less "abstract" and "idea-oriented." But workers on an assembly line, I
would think (I have no experience working on assembly lines), use tacit
know-how for physical activities like operating the machines. With experience,
they probably get to the point where the machine they operate is like an
extension of their own being, like a blind person with a cane (example swiped
from somewhere, can't remember where). There are probably all kinds of
practical problems that can arise during the physical activity of manufacturing
that aren't foreseen in the process and that require expert and creative
resolution. A worker may intuit that his machine is about to break down; he
can't explain why, but a hour later his prediction comes to pass. And then
there's the whole issue of design of production lines, which is similar to
figuring out how to attack a complex porgramming task. At one time, workers in
manufacturing made on-the-spot decisions as to how to accomplish their task.
Yet we believe that production processes can rightfully be automated or
subjected to continuous improvement of defined processes. And the market seems
to confirm this.

> Here's a side question for ya'll on the notion of repeatable process:  I
> want a formula of how to make a hit movie.  Perfectly repeatable, with
> no consideration of the talent involved.  Just turn the crank and rely
> on the process to work.

Good analogy. But I'd say this is a requirements issue (what are the specs of
the movie to produce so that it will be a hit) and thus already acknowledged to
be a non-linear, ill-structured problem that requires human expertise,
intuition, and judgment. And I'd say there's no area of implementation that is
currently separable from people, and thus it's non-linear all the way through.
But, in the future, with machinima, perhaps, given a script and some graphic
design work, the production of the actual physical movie will be automatable?
Though we still won't know whether it will be a hit until we produce and deploy
it - I agree we're no where near solving that problem, even with experience and
intuition.


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