Issue 18770: The definition of "Alpha" is confusing to me (essence-ftf)
Source: Atego (Mr. Matthew Hause, matthew.hause(at)atego.com)
Nature: Revision
Severity: 
Summary: Specification: Essence – Kernel and Language for Software Engineering Methods (ad/2013-02-01)

 

The definition of "Alpha" is confusing to me. The following two definitions are contained in the spec and are radically different: 

Section 4.1 Alpha An essential element of the software engineering endeavor that is relevant to an assessment of the progress and health of the endeavor. Alpha is an acronym for an Abstract-Level Progress Health Attribute.  

Section 8.1.2 What is in the Kernel?  Alphas – representations of the essential things to work with. The Alphas provide descriptions of the kind of things that a team will manage, produce, and use in the process of developing, maintaining and supporting software. They also act as the anchor for any additional sub-alphas and work products required by the software engineering practices. 

Also, an Alpha is far more that simply an “attribute” as defined in the name. The term "Progress Health Attribute" implies that it is a simple metric. Clearly it is far more than that. 

(From an evaluation comment by Matthew Hause.)


Resolution: 
Revised Text: 
Actions taken:
June 11, 2013: received issue
Discussion: 

End of Annotations:=====
s is issue # 18770   From: Ed Seidewitz <eseidewitz@ivarjacobson.com>


The definition of "Alpha" is confusing to me

Specification: Essence . Kernel and Language for Software Engineering Methods (ad/2013-02-01)

The definition of "Alpha" is confusing to me. The following two definitions are contained in the spec and are radically different: 

Section 4.1 Alpha An essential element of the software engineering endeavor that is relevant to an assessment of the progress and health of the endeavor. Alpha is an acronym for an Abstract-Level Progress Health Attribute.  

Section 8.1.2 What is in the Kernel?  Alphas . representations of the essential things to work with. The Alphas provide descriptions of the kind of things that a team will manage, produce, and use in the process of developing, maintaining and supporting software. They also act as the anchor for any additional sub-alphas and work products required by the software engineering practices. 

Also, an Alpha is far more that simply an .attribute. as defined in the name. The term "Progress Health Attribute" implies that it is a simple metric. Clearly it is far more than that. 

(From an evaluation comment by Matthew Hause.)