workshops |
monday |
27 |
Software Development as a Studio Discipline |
pan
pacific hotel governor general c |
Think about the building or rebuilding the Statue of Liberty, or producing a music record, creating a major motion film. Here there is a careful blend of artistry and discipline. It includes the business of art, team building, mutual respect, managing your ego, putting your work on for exhibition, blending with other artists and other media, industry standards, tool/instrument mastery/maintenance, and so much more. It includes mastery and roles - apprentice, journeyman, and master are found in some but not all fields - why?. A more appropriate question for OOPSLA participants is "Why isn't software development thought of in the same way by the traditional teachers of our discipline?"
Many have questioned whether software development has suffered at the hands of mathematically-minded professors in the university setting who fail to address the larger picture and have therefore produced less than well-rounded individuals (geeks?) whose contribution to the reality of real-world software-related projects is often suspect. Especially with the mainstreaming of object-oriented technology, many of the techniques used and taught in the universities are extremely different than those used by successful developers and mentors in non-academic circles. Unfortunately, the typical business model for training developers further is also found lacking as it tends to be focused on the use of particular tools (which has some merits) while continuing to miss the big picture.
This workshop will bring together practitioners who have challenged the status quo while training/educating/mentoring individuals in software development. They may have drawn directly from experience in traditional studio disciplines (architecture, fine art, folk art, record producing, film-making, furniture making, etc.) or other learning environments which have similar characteristics, but maybe just by reflecting on life experiences or particular world views. We will not be building a curriculum, but rather discussing the way studio work gets done and studio workers are trained and what might be applied to the software profession as we draw from our collective experiences.
Ken Auer, RoleModel Software, Inc.
Email: kauer@rolemodelsoft.com
Bruce
Anderson, IBM Object Technology
Norm Kerth, Elite Systems, Inc.
Dave M. West, University of
St. Thomas