Doctors and Tech Support
Back on Nov. 13, 2007 I read “How Doctors Thin
k” by Jerome Groopman. In it, Groopman explains the thinking that can result in medical mistakes. I was struck by the similarities between his doctors and anyone who has to deal with defects in software.
Among the issues he presents are confirmation bias, availability bias, the uncertainty of the expert, the affability or obnoxiousness of the patient, the importance of gatekeepers, prototypes of conditions or disorders, anchoring, and diagnosis momentum.
Groopman concludes the book with an epilogue that lays out a number of questions that patients can use to help their doctors avoid mistakes. Rather than reproducing them here, I have recast them in software terms.
- Ask “What else could it be?”, combating satisfaction of search bias and leading the engineer to consider a broader range of possibilities.
- Ask “Is there anything that doesn’t fit?”, combating confirmation bias and again leading the engineer to think broadly.
- Ask “Is it possible there is more than one defect?”, because multiple simultaneous defects do exist and frequently cause confusing symptoms.
- Tell what you are most worried about, opening discussion and leading either to reassurance (if the worry is unlikely) or careful analysis (if the worry is plausible).
- Retell the story from the beginning. Details that were omitted in the initial telling may be recalled, or different wording or the different context may make clues more salient. (This is most appropriate when the defect has not been located or there is another reason to believe that a misdiagnosis is possible.)
So how does this relate to software development?
1) If you have a series of defects that appear to be duplicates do you make sure your fix will actually fix all the defects that were reported?
2) Do you have customers that you hate to hear from? Do you ever discredit a defect report because of who submitted it?
3) When a defect comes in from the support organization, do you try to start fresh in R&D and not accept support’s diagnosis?
References:
NPR Interview
