Fred Brooks
Flying is more like riding an expensive bus. And regional jets are like those minivans in Turkey into which you are crowded with an odd assortment of people — called Dolmas(h) or stuffed.

But there are some advantages.

On the flight up to the WebWise Conference, I got to talk a bit with software pioneer Fred Brooks, who many of us know as the author of the Mythical Man-Month and the man responsible for Brook’s Law as regards software development.

Those of us who were delighted and influenced by Mythical Man-Month will be exited to know that Brooks is at work on a new book of essays. This time about the Science of Design (as regards software intensive systems). What is that? I’m aware of the field but am now reading up in anticipation of Brooks’ book or perhaps books of essays to come.

One good introduction to Fred’s explorations into the “The Design of Design” is this video and other links from his 2002 talk at CMU which is itself an update of his Turing lecture.

I wish I had thought to ask Fred more about how Design Thinking with its seven stages fits into the thinking about the Science of Design. Fred did say that he wasn’t convinced that there was a “science” there quite yet.