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10/16/2001 Archived Entry: "16-October-2001 -- Investigations in Systems Design: Structure, Context, Failure and Usability"

Investigations in Systems Design: Structure, Context, Failure and Usability (WebWord) -- "The purpose of this paper is to briefly review and discuss three books related to systems design. The first book is Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering (Petroski, 1994), the second book is The Mythical Man-Month, Anniversary Edition: Essays on Software Engineering (Brooks, 1995), and the third book is Notes on the Synthesis of Form (Alexander, 1964). In this paper, an emphasis is placed on describing the core ideas of the books. Brief discussions of structure, context, failure, and usability engineering are included to highlight several themes found throughout the trio of books." (Comments: I don't do work like this very often. I hope that you enjoy it.)

Replies: 1 comment

John: A great piece of work. By far the best book you have in your article is the Alexander piece. His work has informed my approach for many years. The only author and book you might want to add is CP Snow's famous text "The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution C.P. Snow, Cambridge University Press, 1959." The Snow book is really the start of it all....CM.

Posted by Charles Mauro @ 10/17/2001 09:15 PM EST

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