Newsletter Volume 27 Issue 6, Jun 2015
From The Editor
Agile software development is becoming more disciplined but that has not prevented heated debate from springing up again, e.g. “It’s probably not a secret that I dislike the “Agile” fad that has infested programming. One of the worst varieties of it, Scrum, is a nightmare that I’ve seen actually kill companies.” That opinion is part of the recent stoush between Agile and traditional industry experts, see below Agile Debate Heats Up Again,
“And accordingly he praised the stuff he could not see, and declared that he was delighted with both colors and patterns” – Hans Christian Andersen, The Emperor’s New Clothes. Patterns have been used in software engineering at least since the 1990s as recurring solutions to common problems. Wikipedia describes an anti-pattern as “a common response to a recurring problem that is usually ineffective and risks being highly counterproductive”. Recent evidence suggests that some common ICT industry patterns are turning out to be anti-patterns. See below, Dangerous Anti-patterns.
“With increasing reliance on the Internet as a source of information, we need tools to deal with the misinformation that reaches us every day. Computational fact-checkers could become part of the solution to this problem.” This quote is part of some recent research that could assist“the complex human task of fact-checking.”See below, Scientists create computational algorithm for fact-checking.
Our May Newsletter article Sexism in STEM quoted the Emma Baitz comment on an April 2015 incident: “The sound of foreheads being slapped rung out across the globe. The internet was ablaze with righteous feminist fury”. Now a June 2015 incident at the World Conference of Science Journalists in Korea has received similar publicity, albeit with more ridicule than outrage. See below, More Sexism in STEM.
Current Issue
Articles in the current Issue cover:
Agile Debate Heats Up Again
“the more central topic is the fact of an industry that has become really bad at management. “User stories” are a symptom, but the root problem is much deeper.”
Dangerous Anti-patterns
“Hiding mistakes due to a predominant blame culture prevents organizations from effectively learning from failures and becoming more resilient.”
Scientists create computational algorithm for fact-checking
“Our experiments point to methods to abstract the vital and complex human task of fact-checking into a network analysis problem, which is easy to solve computationally.”
More Sexism in STEM
” Unimpressed by his sexist comments, scientists snapped photos of themselves in their places of science, tech, engineering and math, and posted them on Twitter using the hashtag #distractinglysexy to show exactly how ludicrous Hunt’s claims are.”
Events
“The World’s most successful Awards Program”
Consensus (www.consensus.com.au) runs a series of Awards Programs that identify the most innovative technology designed and developed in Australia (and some in New Zealand ). Over 400 evaluations of innovation have been conducted by the 130 Judges since the Awards were started in 2000. Recent independent analysis of the Winners of the Awards shows that 9 out of 10 (90%) of the Winners of Consensus Awards have gone on to perform exceptionally well internationally. The same research showed that across the board, the companies have enjoyed over 1200% increase in sales or value since they have won Awards.
Based upon these achievements, Consensus can truly claim to be the World’s Most Successful Awards Program. In August 2015, a Consensus Showcase will profile over 100 CEOs of previous winners. The value of the companies that will be present is in excess of $8 Billion. At the same event, Consensus will be presenting the Consensus Student Innovation Awards, Consensus IT Professional Awards, Consensus IT Writers Awards and the BigData Innovation Awards. For more information please emailcontact@consensus.com.au
Ted Smillie
QESP Chairman