For a long time, software has been measured and marketed on the basis of features. Ever increasing feature lists have arguably been the life-blood of software upgrades for at least the past decade.

Though obscured by the hype, one valuable aspect of the Web 2.0 phenomenon is a backlash against such feature-laden software. For the sake of convenience, I’m going to call this idea “feature frugality”.

Feature frugality should be a critical consideration for all software developers. Why? Because every feature carries additional cost, and that cost must have some corresponding benefit for the end user.

What does an additional feature cost? Well, most obviously, they cost development time. They also cost requirements definition and QA/testing time. Then there’s time supporting users when there are inevitably bugs in the code written to implement that extra feature. Even ignoring bugs, there is additional time to adequately document how to use the extra feature and perhaps even teaching or training users.

With all that investment of time and money, the need for there to be a benefit for users should be self-evident. Keep in mind, however, that it can be valid for the end-user benefit to be indirect: e.g., a feature that (ethically) gathers metrics on user interactions might not have any direct and immediate benefit to the user of the software, but might help a company better understand how people actually use their software, and allow them to focus their development efforts on better supporting common tasks in future releases.

The bottom line is that features need to earn their place in a product. Developers and software companies need to carefully consider and be able to justify the inclusion of each and every feature in their software.

Ok, so if you’re a software engineer looking for new challenges in 2006, here’s a great opportunity for you. My research team within the CSIRO ICT Centre (the Information Delivery team) is seeking to recruit a highly competent, motivated, and energetic software engineer to our Sydney laboratory.

You will contribute to software engineering, R&D and commercialisation activities within our small but highly productive team carrying out leading-edge research in the area of information engineering and the development of advanced search and delivery technology. This role will have a particular focus on mobile phone and PDA technology.

A degree in Software Engineering or a related discipline is essential; an honours degree or higher qualification would be an advantage, but not essential.

We need you to demonstrate excellent programming expertise in at least Java (preferably other languages too), familiarity with Web services, and preferably have exposure to mobile phone or PDA software development platforms. The development
projects underway need you to work on both research prototypes and on commercial products. Your willingness to provide technical support, an ability to write high quality documentation, and a capacity to talk to customers are important.

Finally, you should enjoy working in teams, be honest, trustworthy, and ethical, with an ability to contribute creative ideas to our projects.

For further details, selection criteria and to apply for this position, please visit: http://recruitment.csiro.au/asp/job_details.asp?RefNo=2006/63

If you have any questions about this position, please post a comment here, or feel free to email me (Andrew.Lampert@csiro.au).

I’ve just heard from HCSNet that ten travel bursaries of $500 towards travel and accommodation costs are available to PhD students from outside metropolitan Sydney who wish to attend the NICTA-HCSNet Multimodal User Interaction Workshop, to be held at the Australian Technology Park, Redfern, Sydney, on September 13-14th, 2005.

The workshop includes two invited talks from internationally-recognised researchers in multimodality: Professor Sharon Oviatt from the Oregon Health and Science University, and Professor Francis Quek from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

In the interests of information sharing, it is a condition of receipt of a travel bursary that the student should provide a poster describing their current research project.

The closing date for applications for bursaries is Friday August 26th 2005. Those interested should send an email to the HCSNet Convenor (Professor Robert Dale) at rdale at ics.mq.edu.au.

If you’re interested in speech, language or sonics you should consider joining HCSNet, the Australian Research Council Research Network in Human Communication Science.

HCSNet aims to bring together researchers and students through workshops, conferences, and a variety of collaboration schemes in order to explore the boundaries of disciplines that encompass human communication. As a guide, this includes fields as diverse as psychology, computing, linguistics, engineering, philosophy and music.

Being a participant gives you access to an increasing number of funding programs (including funding for running interdisciplinary workshops and seminars) and events that are run under the auspices of the network. There’s some really good stuff coming up, including the NICTA/HCSNet MultiModel User Interaction Workshop (free registration thanks to HCSNet funding!), so join up and you’ll get the weekly HCSNet newsletter that will keep you informed …

A fantastic opportunity for an experienced Java Developer. We’re seeking a new software engineer to join our small team of engineers and scientists and be responsible for implementing world-leading research ideas in software.

You can find out more about our work or about the CSIRO ICT Centre here.

Interested? Check out the position description for more information about the position, and to apply.

Just attended a very interesting seminar given by Professor Enrico Coiera from the Centre for Health Informatics at UNSW.

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