Woods Criteria

The opposite of brittleness in complex systems, David Woods presents a theory of graceful extensibility. This paper is dense and will reward further study. Know that it is not for the faint of heart.

strict digraph { compound=true node [shape=box style=filled fillcolor=bisque] subgraph cluster_MRoS { label="Managing Risk of Saturation" { S2 S1 } -> S3 } subgraph cluster_NoAU { label="Networks of Adaptive Units" { S5 S4 } -> S6 } subgraph cluster_OC { label="Outmaneuvering Constraints" { S9 S8 S7 } -> S10 } S3 -> S8 [ ltail=cluster_MRoS lhead=cluster_OC minlen=2 ] S6 -> S8 [ ltail=cluster_NoAU lhead=cluster_OC minlen=2 ] }

We've used Woods' ten proto-theorems as a yardstick to measure the preparedness of methods to provide long-term resilience in a complex environment.

Here we apply the measure to a software development health survey conducted team by team on a yearly basis.

Here we apply the measure to the best aspects of Extreme Programming which we've described elsewhere as normative good.