Work to the risk was Re: Inspections Was: RE: [AM] ANN: Mashing Deadly Myths

At 02:17 PM 2/24/2004, Paul wrote:
><snip>
>What some often miss is that one should see inspections as a "second
>opinion" mechanism. You don't ask the doctor who just told you your cancer
>is incurable the same question again, do you? And, you don't limit yourself
>to the knowledge of one doctor, do you? No. So, you ask around.

Yes, In this sort of situation I very likely would compensate for the fact 
that the doctor may be wrong by seeking other opinions.

However, in the dozens of times that I have been to the doctor I have never 
once bothered to seek a second opinion -- and please remember I live in a 
country with free health care.  Seeking a second opinion regarding a 
diagnosis of the flu wouldn't make any sense.  What does make sense is to 
follow common sense practices such as finding a good doctor, taking their 
advice when they give it to you, letting a prescription run to the end, and 
so on.  On the very rare occasion when it makes sense to get a second 
opinion then do so.

It's the same thing with software.  If I was working on truly critical 
software where a mistake is costly, perhaps the control software for the 
Mars Lander or control software for a medical device, then I'd very likely 
insist on reviews and inspections.  In these situations the risk far 
outweighs the cost.  In the vast majority of situations this isn't the 
case, and frankly it makes very little sense to do inspections and reviews 
when other practices such as pair programming, modeling with others, 
collective ownership, ... seem to result in very high quality work anyway.

>  Another
>analogy: How often do you miss a grammatical error in a text, simply because
>you are the one who wrote it?

Yes, but pair writing would very likely find most errors and an inspection 
would likely provide little value so it wouldn't make much sense to me.

- Scott


>_________________________________
>Paul Tiseo, Systems Programmer
>Research Computing Facility
>Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, Griffin 371
>[email protected]
>
>For more information about AM, visit the Agile Modeling Home Page at 
>www.agilemodeling.com

====================================================
Scott W. Ambler
Senior Consultant, Ronin International, Inc.
www.ronin-intl.com/company/scottAmbler.html

www.agiledata.org
www.agilemodeling.com
www.ambysoft.com
www.enterpriseunifiedprocess.info
www.modelingstyle.info
www.ronin-intl.com

For more information about AM, visit the Agile Modeling Home Page at www.agilemodeling.com
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