Is it really valid to conclude that software engineering is diseased based on one propagating mistake? Could you provide other examples of flawed scholarship in the field? (I'm not saying I disagree, but I don't think your argument is particularly convincing.)
Can you comment on Making Software by Andy Oram and Greg Wilson (Eds.)? What do you think of Jorge Aranda and Greg Wilson's blog, It Will Never Work in Theory?
To anyone interested in the subject, I recommend Greg Wilson's talk on the subject, which you can view here.
I'm a regular reader of Jorge and Greg's blog, and even had a very modest contribution there. It's a wonderful effort.
"Making Software" is well worth reading overall, and I applaud the intention, but it's not the Bible. When you read it with a critical mind, you notice that parts of it are horrible, for instance the chapter on "10x software developers".
Reading that chapter was in fact largely responsible for my starting (about a year ago) to really dig into some of the most-cited studies in our field and gradually realizing that it's pe...
Thanks for taking the time to reply thoughtfully. That was some good reading, especially for a non-expert like me. Here are my thoughts after taking the time to read through all of those comment threads and your original blog post. I'll admit that I haven't read the original McConnell chapter yet, so keep that in mind. Also, keep in mind that I'm trying to improve the quality of this discussion, not spark an argument we'll regret. This is a topic dear to my heart and I'm really glad it ended up on LW.
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