REPLY SD Impact on National Government Policies (SD6135)

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Posted by  George A Simpson <gsimpso4 at csc.com>
I'd like to respond to Kim's point:  "..what puzzles me is why other great 
ideas do not have to wait so long for widespread uptake?"

I think the answer has several parts.

First, SD and for example six-sigma are not comparable because they 
operate at different levels of abstraction.  Six-sigma is a reasonably 
tangible concept that when applied, promises straight-line business 
results.   SD is a methodology, a language, and a very general one at 
that.   It's almost like comparing takeup of a business application like 
Excel to that of a language like  SmallTalk or Dylan.   There is about a 
factor of 10 difference between these rates.

Second, and related, takeup of languages is often directly related to the 
number of applications available in the language.  SD does not have a 
significant opus of applications suitable for general use.  This is a 
chicken-and-egg situation, with progress retarded by factors Kim has 
mentioned (commercial interest).

Third, SD is more than just a language, it is a worldview.  To embrace it, 
you have to be willing to revise your patterns of thinking, and see the 
world differently.  The closest thing I could compare it to is object 
orientation in programming, which took a decade or two to become 
mainstream.   O-O was driven forward because of the practical commercial 
benefits that it offered in taming program complexity, particularly in the 
user interface domain.  User interfaces of course were of tremendous 
importance to the business of reshaping computer interfaces, and this 
drove O-O into the mainstream.   Perhaps there is a similar potential 
arising for SD, albeit more slowly, in the rising environmental awareness 
of today. 

..george...

Dr. George Simpson, Principal Consultant, CSC
Posted by  George A Simpson <gsimpso4 at csc.com>
posting date  Fri, 5 Jan 2007 07:16:24 +0000