Software Quality — the Whole not the Parts

Ben Higginbottom makes a significant point right at the top of this question about the Knight Capital fiasco:

Was the Knight Capital fiasco related to Release Management? On August 1, 2012, Knight Capital Group had a very bad day, losing $440 million in forty-five minutes. More than two weeks later, there has been no official detailed explanation of ...

Ben Higginbottom: Nightmare scenarios like this are not the result in the failing in any one discrete components that can be 'fixed' simply and sweetly by improving the process, but by small failures in multiple domains (I'm kind of reminded of a fatal accident investigation). So coding error, gap in the unit testing, weak end to end testing and poor post release testing coupled with a lack of operational checks when live. I can understand the desire for a 'silver bullet' fix, but in any complex system I've never known them to exist.

Sometimes, it's the whole, not the parts, that needs fixing.

Sherlock Holmes … the Death and Life

A one man show by Roger llewellyn is possibly the most impressive one man show you'll see anytime soon. Half a dozen characters interact and by the interval you face the puzzle of how exactly the relationship between Arthur Conan Doyle and his creations can work out. And whereas this kind of frame-breaking has been with us for a long time, this is the first time I've seen it done convincingly.

Weave The People Technology for Connecting People

Weave The People is a cute bit of technology led by a friend of mine, that helps you to get the most out of meetings by getting people to interact and think before the meeting starts.

Pragmatically it gives you a flying start on the business of your meeting; socially it gives you a chance to get to know people early. Like all things ground-breaking, it's a bit hard to categorise. Try it and see.