[SystemSafety] Another academic safety workshop / why not industrialists ?

[Martyn Thomas]

Les

I've no idea whether or not it worked. We won some contracts and lost
others. Praxis developed an international reputation for software
engineering and quality. Lots of UK software companies became ISO 9001
(but there were other pressures on them). Formal methods are still not
used on most projects that would benefit from them. And the software
industry is probably about as far from being an engineering profession
as it was in 1989 (and arguably further away than it was in 1969).

Is any of this to my credit, or my fault?

Probably a tiny amount, but I have no idea which part.

Must try harder ...

Martyn

"There is nothing in the world that some man cannot make a little worse
and sell a little more cheaply, and he who buys on price alone is this
man's lawful prey" (John Ruskin [attrib])

On 18/01/2015 21:08, Les Chambers wrote:
> Martyn
> This was a serious question. If the strategy did work it would restore my
> faith in humanity. In a past life I was involved in a similar scenario. The
> difference was that we concentrated on evangelising quality to our clients
> not our competition. The strategy did work and the story is documented here:
> http://www.systemsengineeringblog.com/better/
>
> One thing I learnt is that it is very hard to motivate people off the page
> (for example, by handing them a set of quality standards). One cannot
> separate great ideas from the manner of their articulation and the manner of
> their articulation will depend on who is doing the articulating. And what we
> say about safety and quality is deeply connected to the way we say it, which
> is connected, in turn, to the values we hold. Great truths are to be tested
> not on the page, but in the real world. Only then will they be embodied by
> the unbeliever (usus est magister optimus).
>
> If you could translate the paragraph above into Latin I would be most
> grateful.
>
> Les
>
>