Over the last few weeks, Tony Bowden has been posting snippets to his weblog from interesting books about software. I've particularly liked his excerpts from Jerry Weinberg's Quality Software Management, Volume 1 and Volume 2, along with Tom DeMarco's Why does Software Cost So Much?.
Here's a gem from Jerry Weinberg that Tony posted earlier today:
Whenever I'm aware that I'm making an interpretation, I have another choice: I can allow myself to know that more than one interpretation is possible. A good check on premature interpretation is the Rule of Three Interpretations:If I can't think of at least three different interpretations of what I received, I haven't thought enough about what it might mean.This rule slows down the Interpretation step and gives me, the receiver, a chance to engage my brain before using my mouth. Even after I have thought of three possible interpretations, however, I should always be aware of one more possibility: that my list still may not include your intending meaning.
