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Contents of

Quality Software Management:
Vol. 2: First-Order Measurement

by Gerald M. Weinberg

ISBN: 978-0-932633-24-8  
©1993  360 pages   hardcover  
$43.95 (plus shipping)

Subject(s): Software Management, Software Metrics

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Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction: A Model of Observation

I Intake

1. Why Observation Is Important

1.1 Management Failure
1.2 Seeing the Culture
1.3 Cultural Observation Patterns in Action
1.4 Comparing the Effects of Observation Pattern
1.5 Helpful Hints and Variations
1.6 Summary
1.7 Practice

2. Selecting What to Observe

2.1 Intake Step
2.2 Choosing What to Observe: Parable of the Ones
2.3 Requirements for an Effective Observational Model
2.4 Management Illusions and Creeping Deterioration
2.5 Helpful Hints and Variations
2.6 Summary
2.7 Practice

3. Visualizing the Product

3.1 Using the Sensory Modalities
3.2 Making Software Visible
3.3 Making Software Available for Observation
3.4 Product Openness As Key to a Steering Culture
3.5 Helpful Hints and Variations
3.6 Summary
3.7 Practice

4. Visualizing the Process

4.1 Process Openness As Key to an Anticipating Culture
4.2 Identifying the Anticipating Organization
4.3 A Process Picture Vocabulary
4.4 Project Control Panel
4.5 Helpful Hints and Variations
4.6 Summary
4.7 Practice

II Meaning

5. A Case Study of Interpretation

5.1 Slip Charts: Comparing Promise and Delivery
5.2 Interpretation of Company A's Charts
5.3 Interpretation of Company B's Charts
5.4 Company C's Culture
5.5 Helpful Hints and Variations
5.6 Summary
5.7 Practice

6. Pitfalls When Making Meaning from Observations

6.1 Rule of Three Interpretations
6.2 Applying the Data Question
6.3 Interpreting Observations
6.4 Spending Too Much Too Soon on Measurements
6.5 Pitfalls
6.6 Helpful Hints and Variations
6.7 Summary
6.8 Practice

7. Direct Observation of Quality

7.1 Quality Versus Apple Pie
7.2 The Relativity of Quality
7.3 An Industry Out of Control of Quality
7.4 Whose Ideas and Feelings Count?
7.5 Helpful Hints and Variations
7.6 Summary
7.7 Practice

8. Measuring Cost and Value

8.1 Confusing Cost and Value
8.2 What Is Value?
8.3 Role of Requirements in Observing Quality
8.4 Detailed Impact Case Method
8.5 Single Greatest Benefit Method
8.6 Helpful Hints and Variations
8.7 Summary
8.8 Practice

III Significance

9. Measuring Emotional Significance

9.1 A Model of Extracting Significance
9.2 Observing Incongruence
9.3 Subjective Impact Method
9.4 Feelings Are Facts
9.5 Helpful Hints and Variations
9.6 Summary
9.7 Practice

10. Measuring Failures Before They Happen

10.1 Assessing the Cost of Failures
10.2 Universal Patterns of Huge Losses
10.3 Understanding the Significance of Failure Sources
10.4 Helpful Hints and Variations
10.5 Summary
10.6 Practice

11. Precision Listening

11.1 Listening for Distortions
11.2 Listening for Improper Generalizations
11.3 Noticing Deletions
11.4 Listening for Attitudes About Failure
11.5 Listening for an Impending Crisis
11.6 Helpful Hints and Variations
11.7 Summary
11.8 Practice

12. Meta-Measurement

12.1 Inability to Know What's Happening
12.2 Lack of External Reference
12.3 Thinking You Know
12.4 Pseudo-Reviews Hiding the Lack of Reviews
12.5 Cutting Communication Lines
12.6 Helpful Hints and Variations
12.7 Summary
12.8 Practice

IV Response

13. Translating Observation into Action

13.1 Feeling About the Feeling
13.2 Recognizing Congruence and Incongruence
13.3 Crisis Destroying the Ability to Observe
13.4 Response and the Satir Interaction Model
13.5 Decoding the Message Behind the Message
13.6 Helpful Hints and Variations
13.7 Summary
13.8 Practice

14. Observations from the Empathic Position

14.1 Identifying the Three Basic Observer Positions
14.2 Participant Observation
14.3 Emic Interviewing
14.4 Rumors As Sources of Information
14.5 Empathic Analysis
14.6 Sensing the Mood Internally
14.7 Helpful Hints and Variations
14.8 Summary
14.9 Practice

15. Dealing with Swarms of Failure

15.1 Terminology of Error
15.2 Measuring Fault Resolution
15.3 Helpful Hints and Variations
15.4 Summary
15.5 Practice

V Zeroth-Order Measurement

16. Projects Composed of Measurable Tasks

16.1 Transforming Any Task Into A Measurable Project
16.2 Steps to Create A Measurable Project
16.3 Incremental Planning in the Face of Uncertainty
16.4 Helpful Hints and Variations
16.5 Summary
16.6 Practice

17. Communicating About Plans and Progress

17.1 Basic Rules of Human Communication Systems
17.2 Essentials of a Zeroth-Order Measurement System
17.3 Building in Standard Task Units
17.4 Allowing for Reviews
17.5 Posting Progress in Public
17.6 Why PPPP Works
17.7 Obstacles
17.8 Helpful Hints and Variations
17.9 Summary
17.10 Practice

18. Reviews As Measurement Tools

18.1 Why Use Reviews?
18.2 Technical Review Summary Support
18.3 Types of Material Reviewed
18.4 Helpful Hints and Variations
18.5 Summary
18.6 Practice

19. Requirements As the Foundation of Measurement

19.1 Zeroth Law and Zeroth Order Measurement
19.2 Why Requirements?
19.3 Process Models of Requirements
19.4 Startup Task Acceptance Report
19.5 Helpful Hints and Variations
19.6 Summary
19.7 Practice

20. The Wayfinder

Appendix A: Diagram of Effects
Appendix B: Satir Interaction Model
Appendix C: Software Engineering Cultural Patterns
Appendix D: Control Models
Appendix E: Three Observer Positions

Notes

Listing of Laws, Rules, and Principles

Author Index

Subject Index


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By this Author

Are Your Lights On?: How to Figure Out What the Problem Really Is, by Donald C. Gause and Gerald M. Weinberg

Rethinking Systems Analysis & Design, by Gerald M. Weinberg

Also Recommended

Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations, by Robert D. Austin

Quality Software Management, Vol. 1: Systems Thinking, by Gerald M. Weinberg
Quality Software Management, Vol. 3: Congruent Action, by Gerald M. Weinberg

Quality Software Management, Vol. 4: Anticipating Change, by Gerald M. Weinberg

Why Does Software Cost So Much? (And Other Puzzles of the Information Age), by Tom DeMarco

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