astronomy

Watts Humphrey

Watts Humphrey is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Watts Humphrey rather than just read about it. In short: Watts S. Humphrey (July 4, 1927 – October 28, 2010) was an American pioneer in software engineering who was called the "father of software quality." Biography Watts Humphrey (whose grandfather and father also had the same name) was born in Battle Creek, Michigan on July 4, 1927.

Key takeaways

Watts Humphrey belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Watts Humphrey to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Watts Humphrey from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Watts S. Humphrey (July 4, 1927 – October 28, 2010) was an American pioneer in software engineering who was called the "father of software quality."

Biography Watts Humphrey (whose grandfather and father also had the same name) was born in Battle Creek, Michigan on July 4, 1927. His uncle was US Secretary of the Treasury George M. Humphrey. In 1944, he graduated from high school and served in the United States Navy. Despite dyslexia, he received a bachelor of science in physics from the University of Chicago, a master of science in physics from Illinois Institute of Technology physics department, and a master of business administration from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. In 1953 he went to Boston and worked at Sylvania Labs. In 1959 he joined IBM. In the late 1960s, Humphrey headed the IBM software team that introduced the first software license. Humphrey was a vice president at IBM. In the 1980s at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University Humphrey founded the Software Process Program, and served as director of that program from 1986 until the early 1990s. The program was funded by the Department of Defense (DOD) because it was in need of a solution for software being developed that was defective, consistently late, and over budget. This program was aimed at understanding and managing the software engineering process because this is where big and small organizations or individuals encounter the most serious difficulties and where, thereafter, lies the best opportunity for significant improvement. In 1987 Humphrey published an SEI Technical Report (CMU/SEI-87-TR-11) that defined five levels of process maturity: (1) Initial, (2) Repeatable, (3) Defined, (4) Managed, and (5) Optimized. In 1989 he described how to use the five levels for managing and improving software development processes in a book titled "Managing the Software Process" When SEI released the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) in 1991, it was based on the principles in his book. Subsequently, DOD required organizations that developed software for it to have at least a level 3 process maturity level. Humphrey also published books on the concepts of the personal software process (PSP) and the team software process (TSP). The five levels of process maturity were later adopted for use in two standards: ISO/IEC 15504 (later superseded by ISO/IEC TS 33061) and the Business Process Maturity Model (BPMM) published by Object Management Group (OMG). Both standards applied the five levels to processes in general, not just to software development processes. Humphrey received an honorary doctor of software engineering from the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 1998. The Watts Humphrey Software Quality Institute in Chennai, India was named after him in 2000. In 2003, Humphrey was awarded the National Medal of Technology. Humphrey became a fellow of the SEI and of the Association for Computing Machinery in 2008.

See also Personal software process (PSP) Software quality Team software process (TSP)

Publications Humphrey is the author of several books, including

2011. Leadership, Teamwork, and Trust: Building a Competitive Software Capability. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. 2010. Reflections on Management: How to Manage Your Software Projects, Your Teams, Your Boss, and Yourself. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. 2006. TSP, Coaching Development Teams. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. 2006. TSP, Leading a Development Team. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. 2005. PSP, A Self-Improvement Process for Software Engineers. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. 2001. Winning with Software: An Executive Strategy. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. 1999. Introduction to the Team Software Process. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. 1997. Introduction to the Personal Software Process. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. 1996. Managing Technical People - Innovation, Teamwork and Software Process. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. 1995. A Discipline for Software Engineering. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. 1989. Managing the Software Process. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. 1958. Switching Circuits with Computer Applications. McGraw-Hill Book Company

References

External links Pittsburgh Post-Gazette obituary The Watts New? Collection: Columns by the SEI's Watts Humphrey

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Watts Humphrey

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Watts Humphrey claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Watts Humphrey before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Watts Humphrey ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Watts Humphrey

In research: Watts Humphrey appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Watts Humphrey in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Watts Humphrey is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1927 births, 2010 deaths, American software engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Watts Humphrey outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Watts Humphrey in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Watts Humphrey means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Watts Humphrey out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Watts Humphrey in simple terms?

Watts S. Humphrey (July 4, 1927 – October 28, 2010) was an American pioneer in software engineering who was called the "father of software quality." Biography Watts Humphrey (whose grandfather and father also had the same name) was born in Battle Creek, Michigan on July 4, 1927.

Why does Watts Humphrey matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Watts Humphrey?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Watts Humphrey.