Building Software

To manage a system effectively, you might focus on the interactions of the parts rather than their behavior taken separately.

—Russell L. Ackoff

Chapter 2

Systems

I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man’s.

—William Blake

For a profession that deals with systems, it is a matter of some perplexity that little attention is paid to Systems Science by those who build software systems.

That practitioners tend to ignore theoretical underpinnings of their professions is not unexpected. Good actors do not necessarily attend acting schools. Many managers are successful without being students of management science. Good software has come from people without a formal background in computer science. It is also possible that in the case ...