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DHQ: Anticipating Change, the
fourth volume of your QSM series, was somewhat unanticipated
when the first volume was published. What led you
to add on this extra, concluding volume to the series?
What new ground needed to be covered?
WEINBERG: I kept hearing the refrain,
"This is all very nice, but just how do I
get there from here?" I thought it was a
fair question, and one to which we devote a lot
of attention in our workshops. Knowing what needs
to be done is not the same as knowing enough change
artistry to get it to happen.
DHQ: What do you suggest for folks who
haven't read the earlier volumes yet? Can we read
the series backwards?
WEINBERG: I doubt if many of us
can read backwards (literally) and make much sense,
but if you mean, "Can I read Volume N
before some earlier volume?" the answer is
certainly yes. I've worked hard to make that possible,
and different people have told me it works for
them. The whole process is a cycle, so it's rather
arbitrary where you start—and different folks
have different preferences for where they start
the series.
DHQ: How do foreign elements impact change?
How do you get one if you realize that you need
one?
WEINBERG: Foreign elements wake
us up to the need for change (though, like alarm
clocks, they aren't usually loved when they do
it). If you realize you need one, you've probably
already had one. They're out there in the world,
and they come into our awareness if we don't work
so hard to deny them.
DHQ: In Volume 4, you discuss the concept
of change artistry. What does a change artist do?
and in what ways is he or she different from a change
agent?
WEINBERG: A change agent is appointed
to make a particular change happen, and may have
the skills needed to facilitate change. A change
artist has the skills to facilitate change, and
may be appointed to some task.
DHQ: In Chapter 9, you apply tactical
change planning to examine how plans can adapt to
shifting goals and circumstances. Describe for us
the basic idea behind this approach to planning.
WEINBERG: Woody Allen said it best:
"I can predict anything except the future."
Massive strategic planning assumes that we can
predict the future with an ability that's not
given to human beings. PLASTIC planning is simply
a method of planning that takes into account our
limited ability to predict the future, without
judging us inferior because we are not omniscient.
DHQ: You advocate "building faster
by building smaller" in this volume. How do
developers limit the scope of their software specifications?
WEINBERG: They must learn to be
negotiators. Anybody can fantasize systems that
nobody can possibly build; we cannot be successful
building unnegotiated fantasies.
DHQ: Tell us about your Problem Solving
Leadership Workshop, which is held several times
a year.
WEINBERG: PSL is the first of a
series of workshops designed to develop change
artists and to achieve our software engineering
dreams (or other sorts of dreams of a better world).
We think of PSL as the entry point to a life-changing
sequence. The workshops are held several times
per year in Mt. Crested Butte, Colorado, and Albuquerque,
New Mexico. The curriculum and other details are
given on our Website, www.geraldmweinberg.com,
or can be obtained by calling Susie Brame, (503)
721-0908.
DHQ: Your Website is up and running at
www.geraldmweinberg.com.
What sorts of activities are you involved with online?
WEINBERG: The Website is a reference
to all our books and seminars, plus links to related
sites of interest. The most active part of the
Website is the SHAPE forum (Software as a Human
Activity Practiced Effectively). In this subscription-only,
edited forum, software professionals from all
over the world discuss topics of interest and
import, solving both practical and theoretical
problems. On the Website, you can see a sample
thread, watch for the quote of the week every
week, and learn how to become a member.
The
following Q&A's are only available here, on
www.dorsethouse.com!
DHQ: You identify the Assumption of Fixed
Requirements as the result of methodologists' emphasis
on design. What assumptions do we have about requirements,
and how do they relate to software quality?
WEINBERG: I think we fail to relate
the software world to the rest of the world in
which we live. We know that if we buy a house,
for example, our needs and tastes change over
time. That's why most furniture isn't built in,
why there's a prosperous home improvement industry,
and why real estate sales are far larger than
computer sales. Someday, we'll wake up to the
understanding that software products are just
things—just like other things, even in their
uniqueness—and then we'll do a lot better
job of building reasonable quality into our software.
DHQ: What's the most important change
managers can make to anticipate change?
WEINBERG: Accept that they are
not in control they way they might like to be.
It's a lot like skiing or surfing; if you're totally
in control, you're not doing it. Let go and play
with gravity.
DHQ: Some of your models for management
behavior are based on the work of Virginia Satir.
Tell us about her and her impact on your perceptions
about people.
WEINBERG: Virginia was often called
"the Columbus of Family Therapy," and
her work was a large part of the basis for Neurolinguistic
Programming (NLP). When I became aware that the
natural programming unit was the team, I went
to study with her to learn everything I could
about small groups working together. The software
team works together to produce software; the family
works to make new people. I learned more from
her about effective programming than I did from
any other person in my life, and I've tried to
pass those learnings on in forms that software
people would find palatable.
DHQ: In Anticipating Change, you
show a graph of how the subject matter of your books
has evolved over time. How do you account for this
change?
WEINBERG: Two factors. One is that
other people were doing lots of good work on the
more "techie" aspects of software—languages,
compilers, operating systems, etc. Two is that
I was able to solve problems working in the human
areas, problems that were untouchable with "techie"
solutions.
DHQ: Thanks, Jerry!
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