The mystery of the writing that isn’t on the wall: differences in public representations in traditional and agile software development

This paper considers the use of public displays, such as whiteboards and papers pinned to walls, by different software development teams, based on evidence from a number of empirical studies. This paper outlines differences in use observed between traditional and agile teams and begins to identify the implications that they may have for software development

Pair programming and the re-appropriation of individual tools for collaborative software development

Although pair programming is becoming more prevalent in software development, and a number of reports have been written about it [10] [13], few have addressed the manner in which pairing actually takes place [12]. Even fewer consider the methods used to manage issues such as role change or the communication of complex issues. This paper highlights the way resources designed for individuals are re-appropriated and augmented by pair programmers to facilitate collaboration. It also illustrates that pair verbalisations can augment the benefits of the collocated team, providing examples from ethnographic studies of pair programmers 'in the wild'

Mental imagery and software visualization in high-performance software development teams

This paper considers the relationship between mental imagery and software visualization in professional, high-performance software development. It presents overviews of four empirical studies of professional software developers in high-performing teams: (1) expert programmers' mental imagery, (2) how experts externalize their mental imagery as part of teamwork, (3) experts' use of commercially available visualization software, and (4) what tools experts build themselves, how they use the tools they build for themselves, and why they build tools for themselves. Through this series of studies, the paper provides insight into a relationship between how experts reason about and imagine solutions, and their use of and requirements for external representations and software visualization. In particular, it provides insight into how experts use visualization in reasoning about software design, and how their requirements for the support of design tasks differ from those for the support of other software development tasks. The paper draws on theory from other disciplines to explicate issues in this area, and it discusses implications for future work in this field

Insights from expert software design practice

Software is a designed artifact. In other design disciplines, such as architecture, there is a well-established tradition of design studies which inform not only the discipline itself but also tool design, processes, and collaborative work. The 'challenge' of this paper is to consider software from such a 'design studies' perspective. This paper will present a series of observations from empirical studies of expert software designers, and will draw on examples from actual professional practice. It will consider what experts' mental imagery, software visualisations, and sketches suggest about software design thinking. It will also discuss some of the deliberate practices experts use to promote innovation. Finally, it will open discussion on the tensions between observed software design practices and received methodology in software engineering

When objects are talking: How tacit knowing becomes explicit knowledge

The objective of this paper is to build a model of how tacit knowing is externalised and becomes reflected external knowledge. Knowledge Management (Nonaka, 1991, 1994; Nonaka, Toyama, & Konno, 2000) is an important field in Business Administration. Based on the model provided by Nonaka and his colleagues (Nonaka, 1994; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Nonaka et al., 2000) researchers and practitioners have fallen into the pipe dream that employees’ tacit knowing can be coded and canned in computers (structural capital), eventually leading to the enterprise without humans. Earlier critics (Gourlay, 2002, 2006; Gourlay & Nurse, 2005, Grant, 2007; Philipson, 2016, 2019) of the knowledge management paradigm have shown that it does not understand Polanyi’s concept tacit knowing and that it is much more complicated to “externalize” such knowing than presumed by KM. The understanding in extant management literature of this process has been very problematic. Building on concepts in philosophy, psychology, pedagogics, organizational science, and engineering, a model is built and exemplified. This paper develops a theoretical framework for how tacit knowing can be externalized, what is required for such an externalization, and discusses the problems in such externalization, limiting it

IDATER online conference: graphicacy and modelling 2010

IDATER online conference: graphicacy and modelling 201

Beyond the Golden Era of public health: charting a path from sanitarianism to ecological public health

The paper considers the long-term trajectory of public health and whether a ‘Golden Era’ in Public Health might be coming to an end. While successful elements of the 20th century policy approach need still to be applied in the developing world, two significant flaws are now apparent within its core thinking. It assumes that continuing economic growth will generate sufficient wealth to pay for the public health infrastructure and improvement needed in the 21st century when, in reality, externalised costs are spiralling. Secondly, there is growing mismatch between ecosystems and human progress. While 20th century development has undeniably improved public health, it has also undermined the capacity to maintain life on a sustainable basis and has generated other more negative health consequences. For these and other reasons a rethink about the role, purpose and direction of public health is needed. While health has to be at the heart of any viable notion of progress the dominant policy path offers new versions of the ‘health follows wealth’ position. The paper posits ecological public health as a radical project to reshape the conditions of existence. Both of these broad paths require different functions and purposes from their institutions, professions and politicians. The paper suggests that eco-systems pressures, including climate change, are already adding to pressure for a change of course

Building Ballet: developing dance and dancers in ballet

This thesis unpacks a commonly expressed phrase in the dance industry – ‘Teaching dance beyond the steps’ – by exploring teaching practices that develop dance and dancers in children’s ballet lessons. Exploring an area that is commonly practiced and often talked about, but rarely studied, this study shows how ballet education builds particular ways of moving as well as particular behaviours and dispositions deemed desirable in ballet. Enacting Legitimation Code Theory, this thesis undertakes a qualitative case study of children’s Royal Academy of Dance ballet classes through analysis of non-participant, video recorded observations of five consecutive classes at Grade 1 and Intermediate Foundation levels, teacher interviews, follow up observations, and curriculum documents. The LCT dimension of Specialization is used as an organizing framework and distinguishes between teaching that develops dance as epistemic relations, or what is being danced, and teaching that develops dancers as social relations, or who is dancing. The dimension of Semantics is used as an explanatory framework to explore change in both the dance and the dancer at different levels of expertise. Ballet dance is both precise, or highly detailed, and transferable, where steps, technique, musicality and artistry taught in specific exercises manifest in other danced contexts. Tools for analysing epistemological condensation and epistemic-semantic gravity are used to explicate how the teachers build complex, principled, durable ballet movement. When looking at the dancer, axiological-semantic density and axiological-semantic gravity are enacted to elaborate how teachers develop particular valorised actions and behaviours, or externalized ways of acting as a ballet dancer, and how these are subsumed by dispositions, or internalized ways of thinking, feeling and being. The findings in this thesis examine different teaching practices that build knowledge and knowers, dance and dancers, in ballet and how they change at different levels of expertise