Replying to LO28062 --
Fred Nickols asks:
> Finally, what's really interesting to me about all this ruminating is that
> I couldn't think of a single instance of the successful conversion of an
> OO into an LO. Can anyone point me to such example? Are there case
> studies of such successes? If this has in fact been done and something
> has been learned from doing it, why isn't that learning at the forefront
> of my own thinking. I must be ignorant.
The part of the US software industry that focuses on military and large
government projects has been attempting this for some years, based on the
Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model (software CMM).
For a success story in this area, look at
http://pf.fastcompany.com/online/06/writestuff.html (the article was
published in December 1996). There have been other software organizations
assessed at Level 5 since then.
The main pressure for this has come from the government (especially DoD),
which has been requiring companies to meet advancing "maturity level"
certifications. I think it's probably fair to say that many companies try
to go the "rote route", as Fred and At have described, due to the pressure
to be certified at Level 3 or above (similar to an ISO9000 certification),
no matter what learning is actually going on. Nevertheless, there's a
cadre of committed software folks working hard to to make "software
development maturity" a true learning path, rather than just a marketing
slogan.
More recently, a different approach has been taken by several groups of
software developers, mostly in the commercial areas, and has found a focus
in what's coming to be called "agile software development" (see
http://www.agilealliance.org/ for more information). The drive here is
more internal; it arises in experienced software people who, as At
describes, can no longer be comfortable in doing things the wrong way, and
have the free energy and level of understanding to try new ways. These
people are generally strongly opposed to the CMM-based approaches, and
there's a similar level of skepticism coming from the other side.
So, is a Level 4 or 5 software organization a LO? Is a high-performing
agile software team a LO? I think it's worth exploring the question,
rather than trying to give a yes or no answer. Maybe someone from the SoL
would find it worth visiting some of these organizations, and looking at
them through the lens of the 5 disciplines (and possibly the 11 essences
to give a "finer mesh"). I wouldn't expect to see anything like a
"certification", rather more like a learning experience in itself.
(Actually, maybe this has been done, and I just haven't heard about it --
Rick?)
[Host's Note: I don't think this has been done. And, I think it would be
an interesting research project. ..Rick]
Perhaps someone can tell us of similar ferment in other industries.
Best regards,
--Don Dwiggins "Solvitur Ambulando" d.l.dwiggins@computer.org
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