Through a Glass Darkly: Three Obscure Things in Our Field that I Actually SUPPORT!!

Abstract

I am a contrarian. What I often do in this column and my other writings is oppose something or other in the computing/ information systems field. But in doing that, I run the risk of being labeled an “againer.” (A friend of mine was called an “againer” because whatever subject was brought up, he was against it!). So in this column I would like to do a “now for something completely different” thing. Here, I would like to express support for some things that, while not in the midst of the field’s mainstream (one might even call them “obscure”), still appear to be potential major contributors to its progress. I would like to name three such things: 1. The Impact project, and its attempt to trace the impact of computing / software engineering research on software engineering practice. 2. The recent creation of a list of the “25 most dangerous programming errors,” and the further creation of a method for trying to eradicate them. 3. A (by now somewhat ancient) book on the “assessment and control of software risks.” In each case, I want to stress what I see as the positive contribution of these things, but at the same time, I cannot risk adding a “but . . .” to the end