The Laws of Software Process

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The Five Orders of Ignorance

actually 3OI processes; their job is to show the areas of the product or pro-

cess where there is lack of knowledge.

Coupled with 2OI, 3OI represents the true challenge of software develop-

ment. The reasoning is simple: I have 0OI (the answer), then it is simply a

matter of putting the extant knowledge into the product (assuming that I

know how to do that, of course). If I have 1OI (the question), it is simply a

matter of finding out where the answer to the question exists and obtaining

that answer. While resolving 1OI is somewhat more effortful than applying

0OI, both these operations are typically low in effort. It is in the reduction

of 2OI and 3OI that the real effort lays.

In the pursuit of process and methodologies, ...