Patrick M. Bailey, MS
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
Scope
Background
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
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Information systems
Is there a link?
Seeking Answers
The nature of E-Systems
Tent making opportunities
With the user
 Between developers


Software engineering and Faith
IS Professionals
IS professionals must have a broad business and real world
perspective.
IS professionals must have strong analytical and critical
thinking skills.
IS professionals must have interpersonal communication
and team skills and have strong ethical principles.
IS professionals must design and implement information
technology solutions that enhance organizational
performance.
Source:
IS 2002 Model Curriculum and Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in
Information Systems
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Association for Information Systems (AIS)
Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP)
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on
life. … It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.
….I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90%
how I react to it. “-Charles Swindol
“The way you act, your feelings, and even your private
opinions will influence your team.” - Watts Humphrey, TSP,
Leading a Development Team
“Welcome changing requirements, even late in development...”
This is a statement of attitude. – Robert C. Martin, Agile Software
Development
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How long have you been a software engineer or
involved in software engineering?
What best describes your professional life?
What best describes your organization?
What best describes your view of integrating faith with
the practice of software engineering?
What best describes the reason for your participation in
this study?
What best describes your history as a Christian?
Briefly describe any specific area where your faith has
influenced how you develop software.
Skill sets: C, C++, Java, Perl, COBOL, Project
management, Linux, etc…
Other, 14
Manager, 8
Analyst, 8
Active, 53
Other, 22
Interested in
Hearing More,
18
Share Personal
View, 30
Encouraged
by Others,
13
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

“Just because you asked”
“I have some sense of how my faith influences
my practice, but am interested in how others
approach the area”
“I value the education I received at Calvin and
I respect their desire to do the study. If my
involvement can assist in any way, I would be
glad to participate.”
“Just for grins”
Other, 9
Does Not
Apply, 19
Primarily in
Design, 10
All Aspects,
44
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


It affects how I view my work to ensure it is of
the highest quality to bring glory to God. My
faith leads me to be more patient with my team
and our testing department. It has given me
courage to admit to mistakes and aim for
correction.
My work ethic has probably been influenced
by my faith, but that's about it
Frankly, I don't see any connection between
one's faith and software development
I prayed for my hacks to work, and they did!
Jared Staal (07)
Information Systems
Jessica Holtrop (07)
Communication Arts and Sciences
Michael Bailey
Religion
Talk about their daily life and let the Christian
perspectives naturally evolve from the
conversation.

Some reasons why a link is found:




Stewardship
Craftsmanship (do it for the glory of the Lord)
Opportunity to witness (tent making)
Hiring practices


Technical ability carries the most weight
Character is important, but difficult to measure
 Variety of methods exists, but less than perfect


General communication ability is critical
No one said explicitly they consider a person’s faith

Development platforms


Open source is appreciated for the community of
giving
Open source is not always preferred.
 “The problem with open source is that an application
can have the focus of a lot of developers, but if it is no
longer exciting, support begins to wane.”
 “I’m not adamant about everything being open source.”

I think about what does it mean to do my work
and do it in excellent ways. I’m called to
excellence and helping teams to do that. I
continue to wrestle how my faith ought to
clearly shape the way I do technology.

Put your focus on building relationships.

[Using my skill] is my form of tent making.
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S – Small systems that can be proven
mathematically
P – Approximation of a problem. Changes are
made to come closer to solving the problem. (a
chess game)
E – Think of the E as in “Enterprise” Systems
that live in the “real” world. The problem they
solve is likely to change. Acceptance is based
on perception.



Geeks and suits don’t
communicate well.
Geeks and suits don’t
respect each other.
Technology people
and business people
don’t trust each other
Human cognition has a problem — anecdotal
thinking comes naturally whereas scientific
thinking does not… Anecdotal associations are
so powerful that they cause people to ignore
contrary evidence.
Michael Schermer, Jama and the Mountebank,
Nature Magazine, Vol 451, 7 Feb 2008, pg 628
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
The system shall allow entry of a patron’s library card number.
The system shall flag patron records as non-useable if there is an overdue
book associated with the account.
The system shall flag patron records as non-useable if there is an overdue
book associated with the account.
The system shall allow entry of a book identification number for checkout.
The system shall maintain the status of a book. Statuses include available,
checked-out, reserved and destroyed.
The system shall maintain the status of a video. Statuses include available,
checked-out, reserved, being-viewed, on-order and destroyed.
The system shall mark a book as checked out for a patron provided the patron
ID is entered, the patron record is not flagged and the book status is available.
The system shall mark a video as checked out for a patron provided the
patron ID is entered, the patron record is not flagged and the video status is
available.
The system shall apply a date two weeks from the current date as the due
date for a book.
The system shall apply a date one week from the current date as the due date
24
for a video.
When a patron brings books or videos to the checkout desk, the clerk will do the
following:
Request the library card from the patron and enter the number into the system.
The system will let the clerk know if the patron may check out materials.
The clerk will enter the identification number of each book and video into the
system.
The system will create a receipt listing material checked out and each due date.
Books are allowed to be checked out for two weeks and videos are allowed
to be checked out for one week.
25
I = Internal View: The tendency of the person responding is to have a
thorough knowledge of the code itself before determining a testing
approach.
S = Specification View: The respondent places greater value on the
design and specifications of a system to determine a testing approach.
B = Business Value: The respondent has more of an “expert”
customer/user view of how to test software. Further, economic factors are
a significant factor in their consideration.
R = “Real World”/ Randomness: The respondent believes that
most things are unpredictable and that testing in the “real world” is typically
the most likely approach to discovering the majority of faults or patterns.
This does not necessarily imply recklessness.
Project Managers
Project Mgrs
1
2
*3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Totals
SW Developers
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Sub Totals
I
S
11
10
4
11
7
4
4
4
2
5
62
0
3
6
1
1
4
1
11
2
5
34
I
6
5
7
3
2
4
2
19
4
10
62
B
7
6
10
7
7
10
15
2
8
4
76
R
3
2
1
2
6
3
1
4
9
7
38
S
B
R
14
2
6
15
3
5
8 10
3
14
3
8
10
8
8
17
6
1
10 13
3
0
2
7
8
8
8
5
9
4
101 64 53
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
I
S
B
R
Software Developers
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
I
S
B
R

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Business people make the business decision,
technical people make the technical decision
Limit work to 40 hours a week
Determine the quality desired first (test driven
development)
Iterative development (better communication)
“O Lord, I have never been eloquent…I am slow
of speech and tongue.”
…Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses
and he said “What about your brother Aaron
the Levite? I know he can speak well..I will
help both of you speak and will teach you what
to do.”
NIV, Exodus 4:10-16
Against Optimism
Mike McIntosh
Project Manager, Amway
…humble and human share the
same Latin root: humus. To
be humble and to be human
is to know oneself to be “of
the earth” and not one of
the gods. The Hebrews
knew God made Adam
from the earth. Such
humility makes us teachable
and ready to learn from our
mistakes.
Since the cost of fixing a defect often increases the longer
the defect goes undetected, early detection can reduce
redevelopment and rework costs. For example, the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (a NASA software supplier)
estimates it has saved $7.5 million over 300 inspections,
yielding an average cost savings of $25,000 per inspection
[2].
Tyran, Craig K. et al, Improving Software Inspections with Group Process Support
COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM September 2002/Vol. 45, No. 9 pg 87
A rule of thumb for reviews:
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your
mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up
according to their needs, that it may benefit those who
listen.
Ephesians 4:29
Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their work:
10 If one falls down,
his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up!
9
I have much to write to you, but I do not want to
use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you
and talk with you face to face, so that our joy
may be complete.
Nightly feed
Mainframe
Database
Report data
The system we are
building.
Web server
Report Request
Updated Records

Some perception that something is finished.

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Up to 75% of a system is developed after it is
“finished”
Programmer ratio reduction of 7 to 1
Often entry level developers
Maintenaners spend approximately 50% of their
time studying code
Go from different pockets of ownership to full
ownership
Pride
 Not exciting
 Not as challenging
“You have a lot of young people making a lot of
money who care more about themselves than
helping others,” explained one Internet CEO.
Maybe so, but such an explanation misses the
broader ethos of cyber culture. High-tech
endeavors are usually organized around shortterm goals and immediate practical needs ...
Cyber culture is so focused on the here and
now that it implicitly rejects the human need
for a long-term vision, let alone a moral
compass.
-Quentin J. Schultze, Habits of the High Tech Heart
Ken Shafer
Consultant, Indianapolis, IN
…design is His.
Stewardship is ours.
Software is not an artifact
to be “created” where in
our mind we “own” the
software product. Rather,
software and its
development is a means
of cultivating an
awaremenss of who we
are and what role we are
to play in a Master Plan.
“There is the creativity link.
I see creativity being part of
joy. It is certainly an
attribute of God. Realizing
how explicit you must be,
gives you some appreciation
for the wisdom and
sovereignty of God.” Response to questionnaire
“I talk to God while I
develop software, because
He is smarter than I am and
has a better plan. Phone
interview comment.”
ASCII Values
Binary
Decimal
Character
01000001
65
A
01000010
66
B
"Sometime
look at a novice workman …
and compare his expression with that of a
craftsman whose work you know is
excellent … The craftsman isn't ever
following a single line of instruction. He's
making decisions as he goes along. For
that reason he'll be absorbed and attentive
to what he's doing even though he doesn't
deliberately contrive this. His motions
and the machine are in a kind of
harmony. He isn't following any set of
written instructions because the nature of
the material at hand determines his
thoughts and motions, which
simultaneously change the nature of the
material at hand. The material and his
thoughts are changing together in a
progression of changes until his mind's at
rest at the same time the material's right.“
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
…“craftsman”
or “craftsmen”
appear at least
41 times in the
New
International
Version of the
Bible.
Dynamic Link, pg 17


Collecting
information is
expensive
Duplicating it
is cheap
Ref: Database In Peril, Nature 435, 1010 - 1011 (22 Jun 2005) New
A
g
r
e
e
m
e
n
t
Religion
CULTURE
Leadership
Tradition
Role Specification
o
n
Role
Modeling
w
h
a
t
w
e
Strategic planning
Measurements
Authority
Power
incentives
Management
Responsibility
SOP
w
a
n
t
Force
Agreement on how the world works.