Annotated Bibliography and References - The Technical and Social History of Software Engineering - page 437

Software engineering is much more than just coding, so the topic covers re-
quirements, architecture, design, coding, inspections, static analysis, change con-
trol, integration, configuration control, maintenance, enhancements, planning, es-
timating, status tracking, and many other software engineering topics and software
project management topics.
Jones, Capers, and Bonsignour, Olivier. The Economics of Software Qual-
ity . Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 2011.
As the current book points out, software quality has been a chronic weakness
of the software industry since it started to grow in the 1950s. This topic discusses
the economics of quality and shows the effectiveness of defect prevention, pre-test
static analysis, pre-test inspections, and 25 kinds of test methods. Poor quality re-
mains an endemic problem in 2013.
Kuhn, Thomas. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions . University of Ch-
icago Press, Chicago, IL, 1996.
There is no question that computers and software are both scientific revolutions
and also social revolutions in the way they have impacted human commerce, com-
munications, and also medicine and warfare. Kuhn's book is a classic, but it is not
about software at all. It is a fascinating analysis of many older scientific revolu-
tions and their impact on human consciousness.
An interesting phenomenon about many new scientific revolutions is that the
technologies were originally resisted. Only when evidence became overwhelming
is there a fairly abrupt adoption. Some of the scientific topics resisted at first in-
clude vaccinations, Copernican theory, continental drift, and even quantum theory.
The same kind of resistance to new ideas also shows up in mechanical inven-
tions. For example, Samuel Colt's revolver and John Ericsson's invention of screw
propellers for ships were not only rejected, but both inventors also went bankrupt.
Ericsson even spent time in debtors' prison.
In the case of Colt, the unexpected acquisition of 100 revolvers by the Texas
Rangers began to turn things around. In the case of Ericsson, he later became fam-
ous when he built the Monitor for the Union navy during the Civil War.
It is a matter of both technical and social importance that the rejections of both
inventions were not based on due diligence or even full consideration of their mer-
its. The psychologist Leon Festinger proved that humans have a kind of “cognitive
dissonance” that leads to strong rejection of new ideas when first encountered if