[SIGCIS-Members] my "take" on Obamacare

Ian S. King isking at uw.edu
Thu Nov 7 10:01:47 PST 2013


On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 6:09 AM, Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP at si.edu> wrote:

>
> I published this brief note on Obamacare as an on-line op-ed for the
> HIastory News Network. <http://hnn.us/article/153810>. As the late Mike
> Mahoney used to say, the study of software could benefit from the study of
> history, but few who practice software engineering are aware of even the
> fact that there was such a report in 1968.
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Nicely turned, Paul.  I believe the practice to which you refer is what
I've always called "code review", in which the author explains his code to
his fellow software engineer, on the principle that if you can't explain it
you don't really understand it.  :-)  In my years as a test manager at
Microsoft I promoted this practice, often over the objections of (primarily
young) developers who felt it was a waste of time and somehow an insult to
their skill.  Sometimes the feedback for code that worked fine was that it
wasn't maintainable, another artifact of overly "clever" code written by
these young cowboys (and girls).

I, too, find the problems of the ACA rollout disturbing.  As I think about
what is needed in such a system, from the perspective of someone who has
been responsible for more than one global-scope website, I just can't think
there's anything new there.  Drawing from multiple data feeds and multiple
databases, offering a consistent and even compelling user interface,
protecting user data - been there, done that, got the t-shirt, wore it out.
 While software engineering is hardly a mature discipline, these are known
tasks addressing known challenges.

I already have a dissertation topic, or this one could be fascinating.  :-)

-- 
Ian S. King, MSCS ('06, Washington)
Ph.D. Student
The Information School
University of Washington

"Be yourself, everyone else is already taken."  - Oscar Wilde
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