The Shape of Code

The Projects chapter of my evidence-based software engineering book has been reworked; draft pdf available here.

A lot of developers spend their time working on projects, and there ought to be loads of data available. But, as we all know, few companies measure anything, and fewer hang on to the data.

Every now and again I actively contact companies asking data, but work on the book prevents me spending more time doing this. Data is out there, it’s a matter of asking the right people.

There is enough evidence in this chapter to slice-and-dice much of the nonsense that passes for software project wisdom. The problem is, there is no evidence to suggest what might be useful and effective theories of software development. My experience is that there is no point in debunking folktales unless there is something available to replace them. Nature abhors a vacuum; a debunked theory has to be replaced by something else, otherwise people continue with their existing beliefs.

There is still some polishing to be done, and a few promises of data need to be chased-up.

As always, if you know of any interesting software engineering data, please tell me.

Next, the Reliability chapter.