Software management (Panel Discussion)
Leon Presser · 1975
There should be little doubt (e.g., [1]) that since modern computer systems came into being the cost and risk of failure of software design and development efforts has been, in most cases, extremely high. In particular, the situation is critical in the case of large programming efforts, where cost overruns and failures are not uncommon. Albeit management has been aware of the problems for some time, it is now painfully cognizant of the need to improve software management techniques. This is not surprising, since as we witness the coming together of the foundations of computer science, we should expect its associated management to mature. In other words, as we develop a better understanding of the principles of computer science, we should improve on the manner in which we manage their applications. It is the objective of this session to bring the current state of software management into focus, and to illuminate possible avenues of progress. In an attempt to fulfill this goal we have collected a group of position papers that examine the situation from different viewpoints, and in such a manner that the aggregate of comments provide a panorama of the problems.