Current Practices in Software Development: A Guide to Successful Systems
David King, David Katch · Medical Entomology and Zoology · 1984
ions, concurrency, portability, and supportability. adve'rtisement containing any of these phrases encapsulation, generics, exception hanThis concise book, the first in the Ada or similar ones: . . recent college grads dling, and multitasking. It supports the Companion Series, contains a table of .. .1-4 years maximum experience..., development of affordable, quality softcontents, four well-written chapters, five u years experience or SOFT1 development ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~years m ximum experience. IEEE ware by addressing, among others, the appendices, a list of more than 100 WARE reserves the right to append to any critical issues of the programming enreferences, but no index. The chapters advertisement, without specific notice to the vironment, maintainability, security, and include such topics as an introduction advertiser, Experience ranges are suggested . . . , . > . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~minimum requirements, not maximums. IEEE reacdabilty early on and up front. to, the requirements for, and the choice minimum requmes,not aximumseEE readability ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SOFTWARE assumes that, since advertisers Ada's software design capabilities far of a coherent APSE (discussion is on the have been notified of this policy in advance, exceed those required for the effective life-cycle model, management methods, they agree that any experience requirements, design and productive coding of realconfiguration control, system specificawhether stated as ranges or otherwise, will be . . . . ' . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~construed by the reader as minimum requiretime embedded systems, formerly writtion, and project management) and an contr by ments only. ten in specialized languages such as outline of a coherent APSE (discussion Jovial or Coral 66. The programming is on development methods, system community is expected to be much more specifications, change processing, impleWANG INSTITUTE OF receptive to Ada than to Tacpol and menting an APSE, and support tools). GRADUATE STUDIES Jovial. Indeed, use of Ada may someday Conclusions and recommendations are School of Information Technology rival Fortran and Cobol in large softalso given. Software Engineering Faculty ware packages. I found three crucial areas of software Wang Institute provides a unique educational Much of the material for this book is life-cycle support ignored or overlooked: environment that combines the best features of derived from a study (of the same title) software costing, software testing, and academe and industry. Faculty members teach conducted for the Commission of the software training. Inadequate technical one graduate course per semester, interact European Communities prior to publicaexchanges between design engineers and closely with small numbers of graduate students who have industrial experience, supervise protion of the ANSI/MIL-STD-1815A stanworkers in these areas are likely to have duction quality software projects, and pursue dard version of Ada on February 17, significant adverse effects on the develtheir individual research interests. 1983. Many changes were made to Ada opment or maintenance of quality softPositions are available for full-time faculty memstandadizatinware Indee, whentester, desiners, bers and one-year visitors who haive experience as a resuft of the ANSI standardization ware. Indeed, when testers, designers, |I sn n aaSt°r tehaee°reC as a re ult of the ANSI ~~~~~~~~~~in using a'nd teaching the technical and process. However. several of the and users do not or cannot talk to one managerial principles of software engineerng. methods and tools proposed by the another, the resulting disaster is comFaculty members receive industrial-level salarauthors (perhaps editors is a better parable to that of the US Rangers ies and are provided with sufficient equipment word) to improve life-cycle support to during the recent Grenada operations. and support staff to achieve their professional goals. Each faculty member is expected to mainlarge-scale software systems are mostly They could not communicate with suptain a reasonable balance between research In Ada independent. This independence is porting Navy personnel because their software engineering and exposition of that especially true for software managerespective radios functioned on different material in the classroom. Teaching ability and ment. Thus, the book is by no means frequencies. an interest in graduate-level education are esment. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~sential. obsolete. In conclusion, the authors provide the The campus of the School of Information TechThe authors suggest guidelines for first steps toward establishing guidelines nology is located near the Boston high-tech and software development, maintenance, and for life-cycle support in the Ada enuniversity areas which provide rich environmanagement. They state that their aim is vironment but do not provide a totally ments of academic, cultural, and professional activities. Instructional computing facilities at to produce a cohesive methodology to integrated logistical support model. Wang InstituteoincludenauVAXg11/750i(VMs a assist in the cost-effective production of Since there are no student exercises or VAX 111780 (UNIX), a Prime 750, a Wang VS100, reliable systems. Unfortunately, there is experiments to test understanding of the Apollo DOMAINs, and IBM, Apple, Wang, and no mention of life-cycle cost modeling, proposed methodologies, the book, by Hewlett-Packard personal/professional comitsef, i unsitabe fo sel-stuy oras a puters. A growing collection of software tools for which builds management confidence itself, is unsuitable for self-study or as a | otaengeernglicnainfsftbetlfr which builds management confidence ~~~~~~~~software engineering is maintained by the staff that a proposed large-scale software eftextbook. It is best used for supplemenof the Wang Institute Software Environment fort is affordable. Thus, an important tary reading by advanced undergradproject. function of program management-that uates in computer science who are inApplicants should submit the names of three references and a resume that indicates profesof managing all resources including peoterested in project management and by specialt ares, teaching ice, and . . . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~sional specia ty areas, teaching experlen'ce, and ple and money-is largely ignoredt. managers responsilve for the develvexperience in the practice of software developNevertheless, the book provides a useopment, maintenance, and operation of mentand/orsoftwaremanagement to: Richard E. ful initial step toward developing the large-scale software efforts. Fairley, Faculty Chmair, Wang Institute of Gradutechnical aspects of a coherent Ada proate Studies, Tyng Road, Tyngsboro, Mas8achugramming support environment, or Albert A. Mullin sts089 APSE. It goes far beyond the so-called USA BMD Systems Command________________ Methodman published by the DepartHuntsville, Alabama-