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Explore the parallels between healthcare specialization and software engineering in managing complexity and diverse subsystems within systems. Discover how leveraging a human health metaphor can provide new insights into software development processes and enhance problem-solving strategies. Embrace a specialized model in software engineering to address intricate system requirements effectively. Join us on this journey of specialization and expertise in the software industry.
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Tinker, tailor, software engineer, surgeon…Stephen G. MacDonellDiana KirkAUT UniversityNew Zealand
Background issues • Complexity rampant and increasing in software systems • In SE there is more and more that we need to know • To date, we have just tried to fit more in… Image: MAKE Technologies.
Systems (1) • Leveraging a human health metaphor can enable us to ‘see’ a software system in multiple ways - for instance, we may consider a software system to be young, mature, or aging • We can also characterize software systems according to their type… • … or in terms of their core domain or operating context
Systems (2) • Humans comprise infrastructural systems such as the cardiovascular, the musculo-skeletal… mapping to network and database systems, to computer architecture? We also comprise neurological systems that have physical and conceptual/logical elements - which may map to systems supporting workflow and enterprise activities. • Each represents part of the whole, and such systems and subsystems are not independent. • Generally in SE, we have tried to understand all breadth – or… Image: Human Anatomy Online.
Specialization (1) • Like software professionals, health professionals deal with a very complex entity in the human person. They are aware of interacting subsystems within that entity, as described above. • To effectively understand, diagnose and treat that entity health professionals have adopted a specialized model. So, there are personnel with specific competencies in medicine or in surgery. Individuals may be experts in mental health, or provide specialist diagnostic support.
Specialization (2) • People of different ages require different forms of support health disciplines have gerontologists for those who are aging, and paediatricians for the young. • For the many subsystems that make up a person there is the nephrologist, the cardiologist, the physiotherapist, the gastroenterologist... • Use of MDTs and IDTs to avoid silo limitations. • And there are general practitioners (GPs). However, general practice is itself a specialtyin breadth, requiring key diagnostic and social skills. Image: Scottish Government.
Implications • Prospective professionals would spend longer in formal education, but this would be increasingly practice-based, with internships the norm. • General foundation education would be followed by specialist learning and training. • Accept judgement and expect informed, evidence-based practice and professionalism that is ongoing and peer-assessed.
