Rich - (01)
On 2011-08-31, at 4:30 PM, Rich Cooper wrote: (02)
> Why DON'T huge hunks of deduced, induced, abduced
> and reduced knowledge suffice? What is still
> lacking? Why don't gobs of special purpose
> functionality, coupled with gobs of knowledge, do
> the trick? (03)
#1 - much of life isn't subject to mathematical logic (e.g. much of
business activity is highly illogical) (04)
#2 - life (particularly as expressed with language) is a constantly
moving target, based on a poorly defined "foundation." (05)
I express this in the following context... (06)
A house can certainly be described as a "system" (or collection of
systems... heating, plumbing, walls, electrical, etc.). But once
it's built it stays as a house ALWAYS. It will never be a boat
(unless you live in Vermont or upstate New York), an airplane or a car. (07)
Information systems typically are poorly/ambiguously defined &
constantly evolving. (08)
Plus the language used to describe information systems (software) is
all over the place & very rarely formally expressed. (09)
Like it or not, believe it or not, Agile or not, most systems used in
organizations go through some sort of systems development life cycle... (010)
1 - requirements
2 - analysis
3 - design
4 - coding
5 - implementation
6 - maintenance (011)
At each one of these steps people with different views of the world,
with different life experiences & with different use of language get
to put their oar in the water. Then you get to mix in professional
jealousies (requirements folks CERTAINLY do NOT speak/write/think the
same language as programmers) & the dynamics of mergers & acquisitions. (012)
Personally I believe the good news is that the business thingys are
not all that numerous. I think there's some room to argue—definitely
ARGUE—that organizations run on between 1500 & 6000 concepts. But
then it gets ugly since there are many, many, many synonyms for core
concepts. Remember my oft repeated: in 1980 a life insurance company
found in its software systems 70 different names for the "policy
number" concept. (013)
I fully acknowledge that this is not something that will help
translate Arabic to English & pluck shifting political sentiments out
of the ether. (014)
BUT... it will help you modify your business applications faster &
more accurately. (015)
Take your pick as to which is more practical & useful. (016)
___________________
David Eddy (017)
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