Agile anthropology and Alexander's architecture: an essay in three voices

During its formative decades the software community looked twice to the theories of ChristopherAlexander for inspiration, both times failing to completely master the architect’s most useful insights. Now a third opportunity presents itself with Alexander’s recent publication, The Nature of Order. Serious apprenticeship, however, imposes a prerequisite of sober self-reflection and evaluation. What, really, is the nature of the developer’s tasks? Under what philosophical umbrella has the software community matured until now? Do other philosophical traditions offer alternative and perhaps more pertinent epistemologies? What voices, besides Alexander’s, might contribute to the community’s evolution? We address these questions along with theory building, ethnography, weak links, design heuristics, agility, and complex systems, all of which combine with Alexander’s new theories to suggest different ways of doing what we do, better. ACMCategories:K.ComputingMilieux,K.7TheComputi...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: OOPSLA
• Authors: Jenny Quillien, Pam Rostal, Dave West
• Keywords: Formative Decades, OOPSLA 2009, Serious Apprenticeship, Software Community