Better Software - April 2008 - (Page 48)

The Last Word over long-term quality. When we realize that we are playing a long-term game, the opposite trade-off becomes the clearly preferred choice. This analogy of software and the prisoner’s dilemma is not flawless. Note that playing nicely is only the right strategy if the number of rounds you play is unbounded. If we know we’re playing n rounds, then the obvious strategy is to cooperate until round n-1, then play selfishly. However, since everyone will do that, you have to cooperate until round n-2 and then play selfishly. But, since everyone will do that, a bounded game of the prisoners’ dilemma ends up degenerating to the same level as a one-round game. A rational player will only play cooperatively if he believes the game is unbounded. It is tempting to believe that our fast-paced, shortlived software project has a small, finite number of rounds before the software itself has no life left. That leads us back to our one-round, selfish strategy. The flaw in that reasoning is that every business need—every reason for writing software—is usually long-lived, even if our software is not. Thus, solving the business need is playing the unbounded game. Sacrificing quality in today’s software is playing selfishly for shortterm gain and will be punished in the next round of the long-term game. Those who solve the business need and maintain quality will know how to do that again when it’s time to retire the current solution and build the next. We all need to remember that we’re playing the game for an unbounded number of rounds, and the natural outcome of playing the selfish strategy this round is to be punished in the next. {end} referenCes: 1] The Economist. Playing Games with the Planet. September 2007. 2] Smart Money. Tough Customer. November 2007. HAVE THE LAST WORD! If you have a point to make or a side to take on issues and trends that affect the industry, we want to hear from you. We are looking for insightful, thoughtprovoking commentary for possible use as a Last Word column. Please send your submission to editors@ bettersoftware.com. Subject: The Last Word. You will be notified if you are being considered for publication. Display Advertising Sticky Notes For more on the following topic go to n www.StickyMinds.com/bettersoftware. Prisoner’s dilemma Index to Advertisers AutomatedQA Better Software magazine Empirix Hewlett-Packard IBM Net Objectives PNSQC Rally Software SmartBear SQE Agile Training SQE Better Software Conference SQE Testing Training STAREAST 2008 StickyMinds.com TechExcel, Inc. Web Performance, Inc. 48 BETTER SOFTWARE APRIL 2008 Shae Young syoung@sqe.com Inside Back Cover 21 1 Back Cover 22 Inside Front Cover 19 16 41 44 17 42 5 40 2 45 www.testcomplete.com/try www.stickyminds.com/april www.empirix.com www.hp.com/go/software www.ibm.com/rational www.netobjectives.com www.pnsqc.com www.rallydev.com/bsm www.codecollab.com www.sqetraining.com/Agile www.sqe.com/BetterSoftwareConf www.sqetraining.com/Testing www.sqe.com/StarEast www.StickyMinds.com www.techexcel.com www.webperformance.com www.StickyMinds.com All Other Inquiries info@bettersoftware.com Better Software (USPS: 019-578, ISSN: 1532-3579) is published ten times per year. Subscription rate is US $49 per year. a US $35 shipping charge is incurred for all non-US addresses. Payments to Software Quality Engineering must be made in US funds drawn from a US bank. For more information, contact info@bettersoftware.com or call (800) 450-7854. Back issues may be purchased for $15 per issue (plus shipping). Volume discounts available. Entire contents © 2008 by Software Quality Engineering (330 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073), unless otherwise noted on specific articles. The opinions expressed within the articles and contents herein do not necessarily express those of the publisher (Software Quality Engineering). all rights reserved. No material in this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Reprints of individual articles available. Call for details. Periodicals Postage paid in Orange Park, FL, and other mailing offices. POSTMaSTER: Send address changes to Better Software, 330 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073, info@bettersoftware.com. http://www.StickyMinds.com/bettersoftware http://www.testcomplete.com/try http://www.stickyminds.com/april http://www.empirix.com http://www.hp.com/go/software http://www.ibm.com/rational http://www.netobjectives.com http://www.pnsqc.com http://www.rallydev.com/bsm http://www.codecollab.com http://www.sqetraining.com/Agile http://www.sqe.com/BetterSoftwareConf http://www.sqetraining.com/Testing http://www.sqe.com/StarEast http://www.StickyMinds.com http://www.StickyMinds.com http://www.techexcel.com http://www.webperformance.com http://www.StickyMinds.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Better Software - April 2008

Better Software - April 2008 Contents Mark Your Calendar Contributions eLightenment Technology Speaking - A Change Would Do You Good Code Craft - A "D" In Programming, Part 1 Test Connection - Learning the Hardware Lessons Management Chronicles - The Art of Persuading Management Cover Story - Incremental and Iterative Development Developers...Start Your Engines Where Do I Go From Here Product Announcements 10 Things You Might Not Know About... The Last Word - Software Quality and the Prisoner's Dilemma Ad Index

Better Software - April 2008

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