An experimental investigation of computer program development approaches and computer programming metrics
Jr. Robert William Reiter · Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) · 1979
There is a need in the emerging field of software engineering for empirical study of software development approaches and software metrics. An experiment has been conducted to compare three programming environments individual programming under an ad hoc approach, team programming under an ad hoc approach, and team programming under a disciplined methodology. This disciplined methodology integrates the use of top-down design, process design language, structured programming, code reading, and chief programmer team organization. Data was obtained for a large number of automatable software metrics characterizing the software development process and the developed software product. The results reveal several statistically significant differences among the programming environments on the basis of the metrics. These results are interpreted as demonstrating the advantages of disciplined team programming in reducing software development costs relative to ad hoc approaches and improving software product quality relative to undisciplined team programming.