Again, McConnell isn't disagreeing with Bossavit's claims about the Curtis 1986 citation. He concurs! "I never stated that Curtis 1986 was an 'empirical study.'

Again, McConnell isn't disagreeing with Bossavit's claims about the Curtis 1986 citation. He concurs! "I never stated that Curtis 1986 was an 'empirical study.' Curtis 1986 is a broad paper that touches on, among other things, differences in programmer productivity. " The difference is that McConnell thinks that summarizing four studies "offers support for the 10x claim" and Bossavit does not. That's a matter of analysis & evidentiary standards.