Scaling Up A Research Agenda for Software Engineering (1989) / Chapter Skim
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2. Perspective
2. Perspective
Pages 7-14
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From page 7... ...
SHORT-TERM ACTIONS Portray Systems Realistically Mew Systems as Systems, not as Collections of Parts While the computer field has helped to popularize the word "systems" and the concept of systems, it is ironic that information systems developers have not developed formal mechanisms to understand systems and the interrelationships among system components. Software engineering researchers have been unable to provide effective guidance to practitioners regarding the process of system definition and the concomitant implementation of functional elements.
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From page 8... ...
Software developers in industry and government are increasingly aware that change occurs from the earliest design stages as initial expressions of customer requirements are refined. Managing this change involves managing a mix of old code (typically with inadequate documentation of original specifications as well as modifications made over time)
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But for the long term, a theory of software systems is needed that will build on empirical study of software system applications. Study and Preserve Software Artifacts: Learn From Real Systems Past and Present Although systems developers work with an evolving set of goals and technologies, they can still learn valuable lessons from existing systems, lessons about what led to success or failure and what triggered incremental or major advances.
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From page 10... ...
Such an effort would examine software entities such as requirements documentation, design representation, and testing and support tools, in addition to the actual source code itself, which has traditionally been the focus of measurement. Better mechanisms that provide quantifiable measures of requirements, design, and testing aspects must be developed in order to understand the quality baseline that exists today.
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From page 11... ...
How can the process of moving from a domain-specific model to a working piece of software be improved? One approach would be to develop a unifying view of the software design process and the process of abstraction, a view that would define a framework for the task of the complex software system developer.
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From page 12... ...
Relevant current research addresses traditional programming language (although some of this research is in eclipse) , computer-supported cooperative work (beyond the mere mechanical aspects see discussion headed "Nurture Collaboration," p.
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From page 13... ...
Strengthen the Mathematical and Scientific Foundations of Software Engineering In the absence of a stronger scientific and engineering foundation, complex software systems are often produced by brute force, with managers assigning more and more people to the development effort and taking more and more time. As software engineers begin to envision systems that require many thousands of person-years, current pragmatic or heuristic approaches begin to appear less adequate to meet application needs.
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From page 14... ...
3. An informal query addressed to a community of several hundred software engineering specialists suggested the following candidates: the SAGE missile defense system, the Sabre interactive system for airline reservations, the Yacc compiler tool for UNIX, ARPANET communications software.
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