Software Engineering for Students A Programming Approach

390 Chapter 31 ■ Assessing methods
31.6 ● Introducing new methods
Suppose that it has been decided that a new method should be introduced into an
organization or into a particular project. The first, alarming, thing to be prepared for is
that there will inevitably be a temporary drop in productivity while people spend time
becoming familiar with the method. So the initial experiences with any method will be
negative; courage and patience are needed before any benefits appear.
Perhaps the most important aspect of any new method is its effect on the people in
the organization. In most organizations, there is a hierarchy, with the senior and more
skilled, perhaps older, people in senior positions. A new method can pose a threat to
these people. First, they may fear that they will find it impossible to learn or adapt to a
new method. Second, they may see a new method as a criticism of the methods they
have used successfully in the past. Third, a new method will mean that everyone is a
novice again, so that their status may be eroded.
It is generally agreed that new methods should be introduced one at a time. If too
many new approaches are adopted at once (big-bang), it is difficult to see which of
them are being effective. In addition, too many of the existing skills are made redundant,
threatening morale.
Summary
The software engineer is faced with a bewildering number of available methods,
techniques and tools. Before choosing, the first task is carefully to identify the specific
goals of the project. Little hard data is currently available to allow comparison
of methods. This is partly because of the difficulty in mounting experiments.
Software metrics hold the promise for objective comparison of methods, but at the
present time, evaluation of tools and methods is extremely difficult.
This book has presented a menu of techniques, and made some assessment of those
techniques, but it is impossible to provide completely comprehensive guidance for
selecting items from the menu. The evaluation and comparison of methods is currently
the subject of research, debate and fashion.
Exercises
•31.1 List each of the goals of software engineering (see Chapter 1). List all the techniques
of software engineering. Draw up a table, with the goals as headings across the top
of the page and with the tools and techniques down the left-hand-side. Place a tick at
the places where a method contributes to a goal.