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the loss of control over valuable occupational territory that most deter-
mined contemporary reactions to proposed managerial solutions to the
software crisis.
Computer Programming as a Human Activity
The hierarchical model unapologetically attempted to make program-
mers' work as routine and mechanical as possible; the CPT provided a
real creative outlet for a single superprogrammer only. For moderately
skilled programmers attempting to establish for themselves a legitimate
professional identity that would provide them with autonomy and status,
both models were equally uninviting. What was needed was an alterna-
tive organizational model that could simultaneously support two seem-
ingly contradictory agendas: increased managerial control over the
“irrational” programming process, and ongoing support for the indepen-
dent professional authority of programmers.
In 1969, the programmer and computing consultant Weinberg pub-
lished
The Psychology of Computer Programming
. The topic claimed to
present the fi rst detailed empirical study of computer programming as a
complex human activity, and indeed, although Weinberg was neither a
psychologist nor an ethnographer, his observations appear to be remark-
ably accurate and insightful. At the very least his work was well received
by practitioners, whose personal experiences seem to have resonated
with the anecdotes provided by Weinberg.
The Psychology of Computer
Programming
has been widely cited as an accurate description of what
really went on in actual programming projects.
Weinberg's topic did more than simply portray existing attitudes and
practices, though. It also proposed a new method for organizing and
managing teams of software developers. The problem with existing hier-
archical methods of software production, according to Weinberg, was
that they encouraged programmers to become “detached” from the
social environment—and overly possessive of their software. When pro-
grammers invest so much of themselves in their programs, Weinberg
suggested, they lose the ability to evaluate their creations objectively. The
immediate result was bad software—and ultimately a software crisis.
“Programmers, if left to their own devices, will ignore the most glaring
errors in their output—errors that anyone else can see in an instant.”
The solution to the crisis provoked by “property-oriented” program-
ming, argued Weinberg, was the adoption of the “egoless programming
team,” in which every programmer is equal, and where all of the code
