- An Interview with Watts Humphrey, Part 26: Catastrophic Software Failures and the Limits of Testing
- Aug 16, 2010
- In this transcript of an oral history, Grady Booch interviews SEI Fellow Watts Humphrey. In Part 26, Humphrey discusses the software failures of the Therac-25 and the V-22 Osprey, why testing catches less than 1% of all scenarios, and why good software is like a symphony, where one bad line of code -- or one bad musician -- can ruin the entire piece.
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- An Interview with Watts Humphrey, Part 27: Formal Methods, the Failure of PSP, and Tragedy of Beautiful Software
- Aug 23, 2010
- In this transcript of an oral history, Grady Booch interviews SEI Fellow Watts Humphrey. In Part 27, Humphrey discusses his work with formal methods, why he had to move away from the PSP process, and why beautiful work in software does not get noticed.
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- An Interview with Watts Humphrey, Part 28: Early TSP Trials and the Teradyne Team Launch
- Aug 30, 2010
- In this transcript of an oral history, Grady Booch interviews SEI Fellow Watts Humphrey. In Part 28, Humphrey discusses his experiences with TSP trials, why business continuity is a real problem for the software community, and the difference between a team leader and a coach.
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- An Interview with Watts Humphrey, Part 29: The Task-Time Measure and Presenting the Plan to Teradyne Management
- Sep 6, 2010
- In this transcript of an oral history, Grady Booch interviews SEI Fellow Watts Humphrey. In Part 29, Humphrey discusses in detail how they mapped out a detailed development plan for Teledyne, and then used the plan to persuade the top executives that the project would take twice as long as requested.
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- An Interview with Watts Humphrey, Part 3: Sylvania and Northeastern University
- Mar 8, 2010
- In this transcript of an oral history, Grady Booch interviews SEI Fellow Watts Humphrey about his early life and formative experiences. In part 3, Humphrey discusses his work at Sylvania and teaching computer programming at Northeastern University -- in 1954.
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- An Interview with Watts Humphrey, Part 30: The TSP Team and Six Months to Live
- Sep 13, 2010
- In this transcript of an oral history, Grady Booch interviews SEI Fellow Watts Humphrey. In Part 30, Humphrey discusses starting the TSP team at SEI, finding out he had inoperable cancer, and starting piano lessons at age 80.
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- An Interview with Watts Humphrey, Part 31: Expanding TSP Use and Lack of Academic Interest
- Sep 20, 2010
- In this transcript of an oral history, Grady Booch interviews SEI Fellow Watts Humphrey. In Part 31, Humphrey discusses how TSP caught on at large corporations but why it has never made inroads in academia.
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- An Interview with Watts Humphrey, Part 32: International TSP Use and the Trouble with Knowledge Work
- Sep 27, 2010
- In this transcript of an oral history, Grady Booch interviews SEI Fellow Watts Humphrey. In Part 32, Humphrey discusses the use of TSP and PSP in other countries, why knowledge workers need to learn to manage themselves, and how TSP can give engineers the power and credibility to negotiate with management.
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- An Interview with Watts Humphrey, Part 33: The Boeing B2 System and the "Last Liar Problem"
- Oct 4, 2010
- In this transcript of an oral history, Grady Booch interviews SEI Fellow Watts Humphrey. In Part 33, Humphrey discusses why a successful Boeing program was seen as a failure, the challenges of working on extremely large projects, and the "last liar problem."
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- An Interview with Watts Humphrey, Part 34: Women in Software and the Change Problem
- Oct 11, 2010
- In this transcript of an oral history, Grady Booch interviews SEI Fellow Watts Humphrey. In Part 34, Humphrey discusses why more women don't go into software, if Africa will be the next India of software development, and his concerns that the U.S. is losing its competitive advantage.
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- An Interview with Watts Humphrey, Part 35: The National Medal of Technology
- Oct 18, 2010
- In this transcript of an oral history, Grady Booch interviews SEI Fellow Watts Humphrey. In Part 35, Humphrey recounts his experience of receiving the National Medal of Technology.
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- An Interview with Watts Humphrey, Part 36: Agile Methods, Open Source, and Cloud Computing
- Oct 25, 2010
- In this transcript of an oral history, Grady Booch interviews SEI Fellow Watts Humphrey. In Part 36, Humphrey discusses the problem with Agile methods, why the operating system business isn't viable in the long term, and why cloud computing has its limitations.
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- An Interview with Watts Humphrey, Part 37: Language Trends, the Future, and Advice to Young People
- Oct 29, 2010
- In this transcript of an oral history, Grady Booch interviews SEI Fellow Watts Humphrey. In this conclusion to the interview, Humphrey discusses why languages are going the wrong way, why really good programming work is a people business , and the most important piece of advice he has to share from his 60 years in the computer business.
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- An Interview with Watts Humphrey, Part 4: Building a Computer Group and Starting at IBM
- Mar 15, 2010
- In this transcript of an oral history, Grady Booch interviews SEI Fellow Watts Humphrey. In part 4, Humphrey discusses working on the UDOFT and MOBIDIC computers and getting hired at IBM in the early 1960s.
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- An Interview with Watts Humphrey, Part 5: Early Projects at IBM
- Mar 22, 2010
- In this transcript of an oral history, Grady Booch interviews SEI Fellow Watts Humphrey. In part 5, Humphrey discusses his early years at IBM in the 1960s, where he built the first automated system for the New York Stock Exchange ticker system and the FAA's air traffic control system, which are still in use today.
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- An Interview with Watts Humphrey, Part 6: The IBM 360
- Mar 29, 2010
- In this transcript of an oral history, Grady Booch interviews SEI Fellow Watts Humphrey. In part 6, Humphrey discusses the IBM 360 announcement, battling GE and MIT for market share, and marketing the IBM Model 67.
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- An Interview with Watts Humphrey, Part 7: The Director of Programming Role at IBM
- Apr 5, 2010
- In this transcript of an oral history, Grady Booch interviews SEI Fellow Watts Humphrey. In part 7, Humphrey discusses his role as Director of Programming at IBM, including how he got a handle on the volume of mail he received (a problem even in the 1960s), standing up to his boss, and introducing the concept of planning to the entire programming division at IBM.
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- An Interview with Watts Humphrey, Part 8: The Model 91 Announcement
- Apr 12, 2010
- In this transcript of an oral history, Grady Booch interviews SEI Fellow Watts Humphrey. In part 8, they discuss the drama of the Model 91 announcement at IBM, how the cracked-stripe problem kept him from getting fired, and why it's better to be lucky than wise at times.
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- An Introduction to Catastrophe Disentanglement for Software Projects
- May 4, 2006
- Just as the smart thing to do when a ball of twine seems hopelessly entangled is to stop whatever we are doing with it (otherwise, the tangle gets worse), so it is with a disastrous project; the longer we keep at it, the worse it gets. At some point, we need to halt all activity and reassess what we are doing. This chapter introduces you to the concept of catastrophe disentanglement.
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- An Introduction to DITA
- Oct 27, 2006
- Writing, compiling, and maintaining documentation is a necessary evil. While moving to DITA might not improve the quality of your documentation, it can streamline the process of creating and managing those documents. Scott Nesbitt explains how.
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