{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,19]],"date-time":"2025-06-19T04:41:41Z","timestamp":1750308101170,"version":"3.41.0"},"reference-count":21,"publisher":"Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2005,7,1]],"date-time":"2005-07-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1120176000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.acm.org\/publications\/policies\/copyright_policy#Background"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["dl.acm.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["SIGSOFT Softw. Eng. Notes"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2005,7]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>One applies process improvement to the software development process to increase efficiency and decrease defects. Process improvement is not a one-shot deal. Theoretically processes can be improved continuously, forever, but... The belief that continuous improvement can continue forever is analogous to the belief that by continuously improving an automobile's efficiency, eventually the day will come when the driver is forced to stop every so often to pour off excess spontaneously created gasoline. Here, the limits are the laws of thermodynamics. For the software development process the limits are the constraints of the software development organization. To improve a software process past a certain point, the organization that hosts the process's context will need to be improved, and then the context that hosts 'that' organization's process, and so on.Aha! A recursive pattern!The recognition of having a recursive problem raises deeper questions about the nature of process and process improvement, which, for this paper, will be addressed in the context of the development of large, complex, information intensive systems. Systems of this type are the ones most prone to failure and thus should benefit most from process improvement.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1145\/1082983.1083008","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2005,11,7]],"date-time":"2005-11-07T19:28:32Z","timestamp":1131391712000},"page":"1-6","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Deeper questions"],"prefix":"10.1145","volume":"30","author":[{"given":"Robert","family":"Schaefer","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Daniel Webster College"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"320","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2005,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_1_1_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/MS.2003.1231159"},{"volume-title":"Technical Report Series, CS-TR-877, School of Computing Science","year":"2003","author":"Besnard Denis","key":"e_1_2_1_2_1"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/114669.114686"},{"volume-title":"Quality Is Free","year":"1979","author":"Crosby Philip B.","key":"e_1_2_1_4_1"},{"volume-title":"Out of the Crisis","year":"1986","author":"Deming Edwards","key":"e_1_2_1_5_1"},{"volume-title":"The Logic of Failure","year":"1996","author":"Dorner Dietrich","key":"e_1_2_1_6_1"},{"volume-title":"The Systems Bible","year":"2002","author":"Gall John","key":"e_1_2_1_7_1"},{"volume-title":"Chelsea Green","year":"1992","author":"Meadows Donella H.","key":"e_1_2_1_8_1"},{"volume-title":"Whole Earth Magazine","year":"1997","author":"Meadows Donella H.","key":"e_1_2_1_9_1"},{"volume-title":"Modern Times","year":"1976","author":"Morison Elting E.","key":"e_1_2_1_10_1"},{"volume-title":"(Eds.)","year":"1968","author":"Naur P.","key":"e_1_2_1_11_1"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_12_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5555\/221045"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_13_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/253228.253440"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_14_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/949952.940073"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_15_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/382288.382289"},{"volume-title":"Princeton University Press","year":"1999","author":"Perrow Charles","key":"e_1_2_1_16_1"},{"volume-title":"Software Engineering Techniques: Report of a conference sponsored by the NATO Science Committee","year":"1969","author":"Randell B.","key":"e_1_2_1_18_1"},{"volume-title":"The Making of Intelligence","year":"2000","author":"Richardson Ken","key":"e_1_2_1_19_1"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_20_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Robert Schaefer \"Systems of Systems and Coordinated Atomic Actions\" CACM SEN January 2005  Robert Schaefer \"Systems of Systems and Coordinated Atomic Actions\" CACM SEN January 2005","DOI":"10.1145\/1039174.1039196"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_21_1","unstructured":"Edward Yourdon Death March Prentice Hall 1999   Edward Yourdon Death March Prentice Hall 1999"},{"volume-title":"The Age of the Smart Machine","year":"1988","author":"Zuboff Shoshana","key":"e_1_2_1_22_1"}],"container-title":["ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/1082983.1083008","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1145\/1082983.1083008","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,18]],"date-time":"2025-06-18T16:08:02Z","timestamp":1750262882000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/1082983.1083008"}},"subtitle":["the metaproblem of large organizations developing complex systems and the limits of process"],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2005,7]]},"references-count":21,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2005,7]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1145\/1082983.1083008"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/1082983.1083008","relation":{},"ISSN":["0163-5948"],"issn-type":[{"type":"print","value":"0163-5948"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2005,7]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2005-07-01","order":2,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}]}}