what-when-how
In Depth Tutorials and Information
here are gestures, tones, and even facial expressions that influence a conversation
and help move it in one direction or another. he meaning of words can easily be
changed by moving one's hands in a certain way, or raising one's voice (or lowering
it) an octave, or by smiling (or frowning) when saying the actual words. Face-to-face
communication is so important to interpersonal information transfer because the
bandwidth of data is so large, much larger than any other type of communication
used frequently.
Electronic communication refers to any sort of interpersonal communication
that takes places through electronic media. his refers to mainly e-mail and short
message service (SMS) message usage in the software design and development
world. he great thing about electronic communication as opposed to face-to-face
communication is that it is time-independent. An e-mail or an SMS message can
be sent to another person and stored until that person is able to receive it. his
is a great advantage, in that it does not interrupt as face-to-face communication
would. Electronic communication also has a leg up on face-to-face communication
in that it can be stored and viewed again later in its entirety. If the advice of the
communication needs to be taken, but the communication happened several days
ago, the message can be retrieved and viewed as if for the irst time. he message
in this case will carry the same weight as the one that was viewed immediately. In
face-to-face communication, however, a conversation can only be fully remembered
in a person's memory. Communication through production documents and other
artifacts is often combined with the two main forms of communication between
programmers that have already been discussed. A scratch piece of code or an edited
diagram can accompany both face-to-face communication and electronic commu-
nication (as an attachment) and add to the value of the data transfer.
To try and perform at a higher level, many computer scientists and software
developers have tried to develop a system of patterns that could be used over and over
again based on knowledge inherent in other programmers' minds [5]. For example,
these patterns would consist of a situation similar to the one that the programmer has
found in his or her assignment, and a bundle of solutions that have been used to solve
this problem over time by various programmers. If the programmer so desires, he or
she could choose one of these solutions and edit it to his or her desire, making it an
acceptable solution to the problem at hand. If the solution becomes unique, it can be
stored in the pattern and held for other programmers to possibly look at over time.
Whether patterns can be used or only interpersonal communication, the main
problem in software development is clear from the research observed: knowledge
management causes other programmers to lose time. Any type of interpersonal
communication that takes place between programmers who need assistance is
going to take the assister away from his or her work, and thus decrease his or her
throughput, though increasing the throughput of the questioner. A solution must
be found that can help manage knowledge in collaborative software design and
development while minimizing the role that other “experts” must play in interper-
sonal communication, away from their own work.
