Welcome to Jurassic Park: Where Chaos and Engineering Ethics Collide
By
Hayley Denbraver
Who would believe that theme park filled with genetically engineered dinosaurs could have failed? Fragile software and the lead developer’s deeply unethical behavior played a huge role in the downfall of this amazing park. This talk will explore the relationship between engineering ethics, chaos, and building resilient systems. Expect to laugh, cry, and learn to build a better park.
Saturday 3:05 p.m.–3:35 p.m.
Jurassic Park in 3 Minutes
In this section I will do a quick and funny recap of Jurassic Park so we can all be on the same page and so I can talk about dinosaurs.
Software Engineering in Jurassic Park
This section will include further discussion of the points in the story that intersect with software development. Points of discussion could include:
-Vague requirements
-Unrealistic Timelines
-Scope Creep
-Insufficient Budgeting
-Insuffiecient Testing
Unethical Behavior as a Form of Chaos
This section will examine the choices of Nedry and how his unethical behavior was a catalyst for failures. The topic of Engineering Ethics will be introduced and explored. Ethical behavior prevents certain types of failures (imagine a contractor is using the wrong grade of steel for a building to cut cost). Additionally testing your work by ‘breaking things on purpose’ and ‘expecting failure’ is actually a very good application of engineering ethics.
A Resilient Jurassic Park
The final section will speculate about what could have been if the jurassic park software was subjected to some manufactured chaos instead of some dinosaurian chaos and also if Nedry had been more moral fiber.
Hayley Denbraver
Hayley Denbraver is a web developer in San Diego, California. She is a career switcher who used to work as a licensed civil engineer. Her civil engineering projects included working on a hotel near Disneyland (It is awesome!) and anchoring air conditioners to hospital roofs (They are awesome too!). As a civil engineer she had a stamp with her name on it, but as a web developer you can find her name by using git blame. She is an avid contributor to her company's #cute-animals slack channel. Her favorite part of her job includes helping to onboard new, internally trained devs. She is a member of a two developer household, which you should consider before accepting her dinner party invitation.
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