Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where computer consultant, Andrea Parsons is speaking to TechLauncher software engineering students on "The Unknown Unknowns of Computer Consulting". Andrea started with US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's famous quote: "... there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know ..." (US DoD Briefing, February 12, 2002).
Andrea undertakes engagements under a fixed price quotation. This starts with a scoping study to find the limits of the unknown unknowns. The quote includes an investigation and discovery step. The example given was of a new payroll system. The problem was, in essence, to get the client to understand how complex a problem this was.
Andrea emphasized the need to engage with stakeholders, avoiding "us" and "them". She pointed out the silliness of people sitting down the hall from each other, but communicating specifications by email.
What I found interesting about this is that many of the issues in software design are similar to those for educational design. In the courses MDDE 605: Planning and Management in Distance EducationandMDDE 617 - Program Evaluation in DE, I had to plan a new educational initiative and in the latter prepare a quote for evaluation of an existing course. Presumably many other professions undertake these planning and estimation tasks.
"It's with deep sadness that I let the Link community know that our dear colleague and friend of many years, Brenda Aynsley, passed away quietly this morning in Adelaide, after a long illness. Many here will know Brenda from different paths in the IT community, and those of us who were lucky enough as a true friend. I will miss her more than I can tell.
There is to be no funeral, but if I get word of other wishes, I will pass them along."
From: Sad news - Vale Brenda, Jan Whitaker, Link list on Australian network policy and communications, 12 August 2018, 12:49:51
"... totally absorbed by and committed to the Internet and technology,
not because of the nature of the toys and tools, but because both
provide the means of facilitating effective communication between
citizens of the world. ..."
Her work was global, but I knew Brenda as a fellow member of many ACS committees, and one of my successors as ACS President. Brenda changed the direction of my professional work, as one of the team training myself, and others, to teach computer professionals (Lindley, Aynsley, Driver, Godfrey, Hart, Heinrich, Unhelkar & Wilkinson, 2013).
Brenda was most recently Chair on the ACS South Australia Branch, a relatively recent appointment from January 2018. She was also
Convenor of the ACS SA PC Recycling Group, a position she had held for eighteen years. I visited her at the PC Recycling group and included this in my ICT Sustainability course.
Brenda Aynsley was as the first female President of the ACS, in 2013.
In 2015 Brenda gave evidence to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security during an inquiry into metadata privacy 29 January 2015. She was also interviewed on the subject for the WSIS FORUM 2015.
Brenda was recognized for service to the information and communications technology sector in the 2014 Australia Day Honours
list, with an Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM). She was a Flinders University alumnus, being awarded a BA in 1982 and DipSocSc in 1984.
Brenda held so many positions in the computer profession in Australia and internationally, it would be difficult to list them all. Here are a few:
Honorary Secretary, South Australian Branch, Australian Computer
Society; Chairman, 1999-2001, 2004-2006 and 2018; ACS Member, since 1989; Founder
and Manager, ACS PC Recycling Group, since 2000.
Chair, SA Committee, The Pearcey Foundation, 2006-2012.
Lindley, D., Aynsley, B., Driver, M.,
Godfrey, R., Hart, R., Heinrich, G., ... & Wilkinson, K. (2013). 11.
Educating for professionalism in ICT: Is learning ethics professional
development?. Professionalism in the information and communication technology industry, 211. URL http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p223541/html/ch11.xhtml?referer=37
