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

[Roberto Bagnara]

On 01/22/15 00:46, Les Chambers wrote:
> My personal theory is that the software world is broken up into two social
> groups:
> 1) serious people
> 2) comedians
> We'll be okay as long as the comedians do not get hold of any critical
> systems.

I am afraid this is not just your personal theory: there is lots of
experimental evidence around suggesting that the second group might be
larger than the first one.

I agree with Martyn that we all must try harder.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de
> [mailto:systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de] On Behalf Of
> Martyn Thomas
> Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 5:19 AM
> To: systemsafety at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de
> Subject: Re: [SystemSafety] Another academic safety workshop / why not
> industrialists ?
> 
> 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


-- 
     Prof. Roberto Bagnara

Applied Formal Methods Laboratory - University of Parma, Italy
mailto:bagnara at cs.unipr.it
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