Software Mapmaking: Making modern life better - and the end of the era of the geek (Software for Domain Experts) - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

We think there is scope for modern life to be better - because there is scope for the software which supports modern life on to be better. This book suggests a way it could be done.Our recipe, which we call map making, means spending more time looking at software in an abstracted way – as a plan, map, or model – and spending less time looking at the code.And keeping this map in the forefront of the software development work, as a plan to be followed rather than a code. In the same way that a builder follows a plan, a musician follows sheet music and an actor reads out the lines provided by somebody else.We are not thinking about all software – we are thinking particularly about software which is used to co-ordinate complex activities, such as running a health service, smaller businesses, personalised education, or development of digital technology itself.The problem which we think we identify is that so much of the work of developing such software involves focus on the technical details needed to make the thing work. This leads to a certain mindset in the people involved in making such products. This may be the mindset you identify with the word ‘geek’.Technical people are accustomed to leaping into battle with code and their machines - but perhaps less accustomed to strategic thinking at a different level.This would be the right mindset for hand to hand combat in a war, but not the best for figuring out if you can avoid the conflict happening or resolve it in other ways.It is not enough to just simply say people should stop looking all the time at the details and look at something in different levels. Somebody needs to figure out ways to do it and share them. This is what we try to do in this book.

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