The Laws of Software Process

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The Five Orders of Ignorance

have ignorance, this second loop is to identify what that ignorance

might be. Fed through the process, these questions should elicit

answers, although commonly each answer generates other ques-

tions and sometimes painfully illuminates whole areas that require

further investigation.

• The final step is to convert the specific questions into specific

answers and apply these answers. At this point we can certify the

output as 0OI or extant knowledge.

The steps are:

Undifferentiated Lack of Knowledge (2OI) →

Identified Lack of Knowledge (1OI) →

Knowledge (0OI)

The fly in the ointment has already been identified — it is that the ques-

tion-answering process almost invariably generates more questions. Sim-

ply put, acquiring knowledge ...