Slashdot Log In
IBM Trying To Patent Timed Code Inspection
Posted by
kdawson
on Sat Apr 26, 2008 10:15 PM
from the walking-through-a-patent-minefield dept.
from the walking-through-a-patent-minefield dept.
theodp writes "A just-published IBM patent application for a Software Inspection Management Tool claims to improve software quality by taking a chess-clock-like approach to code walkthroughs. An inspection rate monitor with 'a pause button, a resume button, a complete button, a total lines inspected indication, and a total lines remaining to be inspected indication' keeps tabs on participants' progress and changes color when management's expectations — measured in lines per hour — are not being met."
Related Stories
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
sounds fantastic (Score:5, Funny)
Re:sounds fantastic (Score:4, Interesting)
Most people are more "careful and attentive to" looking like they're busy, as opposed to actually thinking about the problem at hand, when someone's looking over their shoulder.
Yes, we need better metrics to determine performance. However, we should do our Jedi Knight code warrior hand-waving thing and say "these are not the metrics you're looking for." This is a sop to cover up inadequacies (in both the people managing, and their methodologies) the previous steps to the development process. Where is the story mod, with a "-1 Fucktarded" option, when we need it?
Parent
Might not be a bad thing to patent. (Score:4, Funny)
-jcr
Parent
Perhaps a good patent (Score:5, Funny)
What it means (Score:2, Funny)
Note to self: (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't buy any IBM software after this awful thing gets approved.
And in case any management types happen to be reading this - programming isn't freaking bricklaying. You can't say "well the wall needs 120 bricks, and 1 person can lay 1 brick in one minute, so that's two hours work. Or 1 hour's worth of work for two people."
Read this book, [wikipedia.org] and then get back to us IBM.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
well the wall needs 120 bricks, and 1 person can lay 1 brick in one minute, so that's two hours work. Or 1 hour's worth of work for two people.
Unfortunately that is how "executive students" in crackerjack MBA degree programs around the country are taught to think about everyone else except themselves. Is it any wonder then that most of the top managers, the best board members, and the most intelligent CEOs are self made and taught men and women? The person who believes and applies exactly what is taught in business school without intelligent thought and reasonable allowance for the circumstances is not really an MBA, but an employee in manager's
Re:Note to self: (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Fixed that for you.
Yeah, because nothing says quality code reviews... (Score:5, Insightful)
What about code WRITING speed??? (Score:5, Funny)
In fact, I think programmers should meet management expectations for keystrokes per second including backspace! I mean backspace means the programmer is correcting his mistakes!!!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
OK but I call dibs on the patent for software that measures if managers are alienating and burning out their underlings at the specified rate. Product producing employees need a high turnover rate to keep our product "fresh" and "innovative". Do you like my new tie? It matches my BMW.
what a stupid stupid idea (Score:2)
Right Wally. so, you write line after line of utterly meaningless horseshit to keep your line count up, and then route the data to a place where it gets commented out... and then follo
That was my other thought (Score:3, Funny)
Right Wally. so, you write line after line of utterly meaningless horseshit to keep your line count up, and then route the data to a place where it gets commented out... and then follow that with line after line of craptastic documentation.
Bingo, sir. Programmers are excellent at beating the system. That's our job. Figuring out systems.
You're gonna see a lot of code like this:
for(
// i holds the count
// The next line makes sure we count to ten
// This increments the count
// Let's do our function.
// And close the loop.
int i=0;
i<=10;
i++)
{
doWork();
}
Sounds like a real blast, IBM. Good thinking.
Re:what a stupid stupid idea (Score:5, Funny)
He was ready to place semicolons on a separate line too, if management wanted even higher efficiency.
Parent
Re:what a stupid stupid idea (Score:5, Informative)
If I am understanding this correctly, the article refers to lines inspected, not written. So this is for the quality-control guys and not the main programmers.
Parent
Quality... (Score:4, Insightful)
This is one of those patents based clearly on conjecture. Seriously - is there anyone stupid enough to try it, or anyone stupid enough to work in an environment that relies on this kind of QA?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Metropolis.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927). Excellent movie BTW.
The worker at the power plant collapses during a a shift which was too long and required to many new operations demanded by a clock-like device. The power plant nearly explodes, because he can not keed up with the pace of this clock-like device.
The summary looks like misleading flamebait to me (Score:5, Insightful)
I've only flicked through the patent application so far, but it doesn't seem very much like what the submitter makes out.
From what I can see, the implication that this has anything to do with management harassing the developers and testers is completely conjecture on the part of the slashdot submitter. The only context in which the word "manage" appears in the entire application is as part of the phrase "management tool", which to me implies that it's supposed to be entirely to help the testing and development staff. (Okay, there's one occurance which is "inspection process manager".)
I know that IBM has a famous history of having associated productivity with lines of code, but I really don't think they're being quite so dim-witted with this one. I haven't read the application in detail, but to me it looks more like someone's been developing a tool to help with code inspection. By the looks of it, it has a certain way of displaying the code, it has a method of recording noted defects and comments, and it has a feature of timing how long things are taking and how long a user is spending on certain parts of a code-base.
I can't see any direct implication in the patent application that this is primarily for management to measure staff performance to compare with pre-defined expectations. On the other hand I can see a lot of references in the patent application to the code inspector themselves using this tool to assist their work. I think it's much more likely that someone running an inspection could use such a tool to help them keep track of the most fragile parts of the code, and which areas are tying up the most of their time. If there was a deadline for inspection, it'd probably also help to highlight if you were spending far too much time in one place without having even reached other areas that might be important.
Whether it would work or be any use at all it another issue, but if it's a completely wacky idea then it wouldn't be the first that someone tried to patent. Many good patented ideas seemed silly or ridiculous before a working implementation was produced to demonstrate otherwise, but if an inventor had waited until it was clearly useful before patenting it, it'd be a lot harder.
more ideas (Score:3, Insightful)
(responding to my own post with more ideas) ...
Other areas where such a tool might be useful are:
-2000 Lines Of Code (Score:5, Interesting)
Seen this (Score:3, Insightful)