The Human Factor in Software Engineering

"Science never fails" is the motto of the Journal of Unsolved Questions. It publishes research questions which have not been solved and research efforts which did not answer these questions neither. It is not only a chronicle of failed research, but also a source of ideas for future research projects. So far, there is not much talk about software engineering there, but this can be changed. In a quiet minute, I could browse through my own papers and gather all these questions that still move me but which I have no time to answer myself.

This reminds me of a book of Goethe I read one day. When he grew older, he sketched some of his ideas for new novels which he knew he would never write because life is too short. Unfortunately, today the topics proposed there are no longer so relevant, but I liked the idea in itself. Because mature writers or researchers as experts have an abundant treasure of ideas and lack the time do realize all of them. While younger people who are no experts have difficulties to distinguish an innovative idea from a question that has already been answered. They can not easily distinguish a relevant question from an irrelevant question or a solvable problem from an unsolvable one.