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Software development staffs in the seventies and eighties

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Herbert NalselAuthors Info & Claims

ACM '79: Proceedings of the 1979 annual conference

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https://doi.org/10.1145/800177.810014

Published: 01 January 1979 Publication History

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Abstract

This talk will focus on staffing for software development, but first some background.

The four principal components of computer systems are hardware, software, files and people. Substantial improvements In hardware are obtained by providing an opportunity for electronic engineers and physicists to develop new designs. In this area there is a substantial body of knowledge underlying the design process. College and university degrees are just about mandatory for entry Into the field of hardware design.

There is a less well-defined body of knowledge appropriate to the development of software and to the processing of files. We learned something from the large scale software projects of the sixties and the principles of software engineering are becoming more and more relevant to software development but we still have a long way to go. Data base techniques have Impacted our file handling methods but it may be that hardware developments will have a more profound Impact on our file handling problems by providing such things as associative memories, megabit chips, and more and more cost effective disk systems.

In any case, it is clear that a body of knowledge is evolving that is relevant to software development. Staffing for software development in the seventies has taken this into account in a variety of ways. Data is presented that indicates the extent to which systems analysts and programmers have been expected to have degrees in computer-related subjects in the seventies and predictions are made for the eighties. Increasing numbers of short seminars are being conducted by universities, computer manufacturers and training specialists.

The conclusion that is reached is that the seventies and eighties are transition periods during which software development staffs in business data processing will be required more and more often to present formal evidence of having mastered a body of knowledge by successfully completing a degree program and/or passing a written examination administered by a certifying authority.

Index Terms

Software development staffs in the seventies and eighties
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Management of computing and information systems
      1. Project and people management
        Project staffing
      2. Software management
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management

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ACM '79: Proceedings of the 1979 annual conference

January 1979

260 pages

ISBN:0897910087

DOI:10.1145/800177

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 January 1979

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Abstract

Index Terms

Recommendations

"Leagile" software development

Teaching disciplined software development

Adopting to Agile Software Development

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