ESEVO Quality and Simplicity Frömel ESEVO Quality and Simplicity Bernhard Frömel based on slides by Hermann Kopetz. - Institute of Computer Engineering Vienna University of Technology - 182.722 Embedded Systems Engineering LU October, 2014 1/48
ESEVO Quality and Simplicity Frömel Part I Quality 2/48
ESEVO What is Quality? Quality and Simplicity Frömel ”Quality ...you know what it is, yet you don’t know what it is. But that’s self-contradictory. But some things are better than others, that is, they have more quality. But when you try to say what the quality is, apart from the things that have it, it all goes poof!” [Pirsig, 1974] ”Quality cannot be defined. If we do define it we are defining something less than Quality itself.” [Pirsig, 1974] ??? 3/48
ESEVO Some Attempts to define Quality Quality and Simplicity Frömel Quality is ... ◮ ”Conformance to requirements.” [Philip B. Crosby] ◮ ”[the] Degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements.” [ISO9000] ⇒ Seems to shift the problem to the definition of ’requirement’, ’expectation’ ... More attempts: Quality is ... ◮ ”[the] Number of defects per million opportunities.” [Six Sigma] 4/48
ESEVO Robert M. Pirsig (born in 1928) Quality and Simplicity Frömel ◮ American writer and philosopher ◮ IQ of 170 at age of 9 ◮ Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and clinical depression ◮ Author of two remarkably successful philosophical novels: ◮ Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (published in 1974, after more than 120 rejections) ◮ Lila: An Inquiry into Morals (published in 1991) ◮ In these novels Prisig introduces his Metaphysics of Quality (MOQ) which aims to give philosophical answer of what quality is. 6/48
ESEVO Pirsig’s Metaphysics of Quality – A Philosophical Quality and Simplicity Model of Reality Frömel Quality classic romantic objective subjective rational intuition painting brushes creativity imitation engineering creating reality “discovering” analytic knife cut ⇒ Subordinate everything to quality. 7/48
ESEVO Can we bring quality into being with a method? Quality and Simplicity Frömel ◮ Standards? ◮ Coding guidelines? ◮ Testing? ◮ Hard work? ◮ Copying high-quality work? ◮ Do these things guarantee high quality products? ◮ Are they sufficient? 8/48
ESEVO How is the engineer related to the product? Quality and Simplicity Frömel ”Die Ordnung und Regelmäßigkeit an den Erscheinungen, die wir Natur nennen, bringen wir selbst hinein, und würden sie auch nicht darin finden können, hätten wir sie nicht, oder die Natur unseres Gemüts ursprünglich hineingelegt.”, Immanuel Kant Kritik der reinen Vernunft 9/48
ESEVO Imitation versus Creation Quality and Simplicity Frömel ◮ It seems that most of our professional (and personal) life is based on imitation ◮ School / University ◮ Guidelines in companies ◮ International research lines ◮ Existing literature ◮ Typical thoughts of a student when given an exercise ◮ ”What do they want me to do?” ◮ ”How does one do this?” ◮ ”How many pages should I write?” 10/48
ESEVO ...and it continues in the professional life Quality and Simplicity Frömel ◮ ”I am a researcher, so I have to find a problem to work on ...I will look what others did, and see how to extend it” ◮ ”I will look at other embedded systems papers to find out how to write an introduction/evaluation/conclusion/...for my work” ◮ ” They want experiments at the conference, so I include some numbers” ◮ ”I look at the reviewer guidelines and bunker my paper” This way, being creative seems to be very hard work! 11/48
ESEVO Requirement: Genuine interest Quality and Simplicity Frömel ◮ Interest and excitement cannot be forced ◮ It has to arise naturally ◮ Seeking something that might be intersting to me prevents true interest Interest will arise naturally if one gives up seeking! (side note: Concept of wu wei , i.e., passive creativity, in Taoism) 12/48
ESEVO Requirement: Freedom of the known Quality and Simplicity Frömel ”The birth of a new fact is always a wonderful thing to experience. It’s dualistically called a ”discovery” because of the presumption that it has an existence independent of anyone’s awareness of it. When it comes along, it always has, at first, a low value. Then, depending on the value-looseness of the observer and the potential quality of the fact, its value increases, either slowly or rapidly, or the value wanes and the fact disappears.” [Pirsig, 1974] 13/48
ESEVO Requirement: Attitude Quality and Simplicity Frömel ◮ The ego can be one of the biggest traps regarding quality ◮ An ego that is too strong will never have humility to learn ◮ Very often the case with people that have to defend their high position ◮ An ego that is too weak will suppress all the excitement and kills motivation ◮ Very often the case with people in a lower position True creativity requires ending the attachment to the outcome of the work! We are not talking about indifference! 14/48
ESEVO Requirement: Ask questions Quality and Simplicity ◮ Don’t take exisiting practices as ultimate truth Frömel ◮ Question prevailing opinions ◮ Question your own opinions ◮ Never be shy to ask questions True, there are stupid questions that you shouldn’t ask ⇒ Exactly those questions are stupid that you only ask in order to demonstrate how clever you are 15/48
ESEVO Requirement: All the other classical skills Quality and Simplicity Frömel ◮ Commitment ◮ Experience ◮ Willingness to spend time and energy ◮ Knowledge ◮ Methodologies and tools ◮ Select them wisely 16/48
ESEVO Quality tends to fan out like waves Quality and Simplicity Frömel ”The Quality job he didn’t think anyone was going to see is seen, and the person who sees it feels a little better because of it, and is likely to pass that feeling on to others, and in that way the Quality tends to keep on going.” [Pirsig, 1974] 17/48
ESEVO Quality and Simplicity Frömel Part II Simplicity 18/48
ESEVO Software for Dependable Systems Quality and Simplicity Frömel A report on Software for Dependable Systems: Sufficient Evidence? [Millett et al., 2007] from the US National Academies contains as one of its central recommendations: One key to achieving dependability at reasonable cost is a serious and sustained commitment to simplicity, including simplicity of critical functions and simplicity in system interactions. This commitment is often the mark of true expertise. 19/48
ESEVO Abstraction Quality and Simplicity Frömel ”[Abstraction is] the process by which the particular is subordinated to the general, so that what is represented is applicable to many particulars.”, [Zeki, 2002] Abstraction is a fundamental innate task of the brain. 20/48
The Key to Success: Finding Proper Abstraction In celestial mechanics, when we are interested in the interactions between heavenly bodies, we build an abstraction where we put aside the diversity of our world and consider it be a single mass point – the ultimate simplicity.
ESEVO Abstraction forms Categories Quality and Simplicity Frömel ◮ A category is a set of elements that shares a set of common characteristic features ◮ Often a name (string, sound) is assigned to a category. This name is also used to denote an element of the category. This double-use of a name – for the category as a whole and for an element of the category – can be sometimes misleading. ◮ The notion of category is recursive : the elements of a category can themselves be categories ( hierarchical composition is a basic abstraction mechanism). ◮ The recursion stops at primary categories that are subject to direct sensory experience. 22/48
ESEVO A Concept is Part of an Implicit Theory Quality and Simplicity Frömel A category that is augmented by a set of beliefs about its relations to existing knowledge is called a concept . ◮ The set of beliefs relate a new concept to already existing concepts and provide an implicit theory (i.e., a mental model) of the domain. ◮ The theory explains how the individual interconnects the diverse concepts of the domain and understands their interrelationships. ◮ As a new domain is penetrated, new concepts are formed and existing concepts are strengthened. 23/48
ESEVO Denotation versus Connotation of a Word Quality and Simplicity Frömel ◮ Denoation: The association of a word with the essence of the concept that is shared by the language community ( denotational semantics ). ◮ Connotation: The associations in addition to the essence of the concept that a word activates in an individual speaker or some group of speakers – often referring to emotive or affective aspects of the concept. Example: Fireplace Denotation: a place where a fire can be maintained Connotation: cozy, romantic, personal experience 24/48
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