1. Ch7.
Why Did the Tower of
Babel Fail?
Edward Chiang
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2. GENESIS 11:1-8
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3. A Management Audit of
the Babel Project
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4. A clear mission?
Manpower?
Materials?
Enough time?
Adequate technology?
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5. Why did the project fail?
Where did they lack?
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6. Communication!
Organization!
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7. Communication in the
Large Programming
Project
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8. The Project Workbook
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9. Teams communicate
Informally
Meetings
Workbook
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10. What
All the documents of project need to be part of
this structure.
Objectives, external specifications, interface
specifications, technical standards, internal
specifications, and administrative memoranda.
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11. Why
Get the structure of the documentation right.
Control of the distribution of information.
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12. Organization in the Large
Programming Project
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13. If there are n workers on a project, there are
(n^2-n)/2 interfaces across which there may
be communication.
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14. Tree-like programming
organization
a mission interface definitions
among the parts
a producer
a technical director or
architect
a schedule
a division of labor
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15. The producer and the technical director may
be the same man
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16. The producer may be boss, the director his
right-hand man.
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17. The director may be boss, and the producer his
right-hand man.
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18. The Tower of Babel was the
first engineering fiasco,
but it was not the last.
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19. Project workbook
Programming project
Organization
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20. Thank you!
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