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Investigations in Systems Design: Structure, Context, Failure and Usability

Article by John S. Rhodes

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to briefly review and discuss three books related to systems design. The first book is Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering (Petroski, 1994), the second book is The Mythical Man-Month, Anniversary Edition: Essays on Software Engineering (Brooks, 1995), and the third book is Notes on the Synthesis of Form (Alexander, 1964). In this paper, an emphasis is placed on describing the core ideas of the books. Brief discussions of structure, context, failure, and usability engineering are included to highlight several themes found throughout the trio of books.

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Links to the Books at Amazon

• Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering 
  
• The Mythical Man-Month, Anniversary Edition: Essays on Software Engineering 
  
• Notes on the Synthesis of Form 

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