Even after more than 60 years software engineering is not yet a certified profession with licenses, board specialties, and malpractice monitoring as occurs with medicine and law. While there have been some improvements in programming languages, requirements, design, and development methods there is still need for much more progress. Continue reading
Although the dot.com bubble was a serious crisis for software and technology companies, it was not the only bubble to burst during the decade. Starting at the end of 2007 and running through 2010 the country and much of the world encountered what has come to be known as “the great recession” which is a paraphrase on “the great depression” which started in 1929. Continue reading
Two more recent examples of collateral damages show that they are still occurring even today. The first was in 2009 when the city of Port St. Lucie, Florida and offered substantial incentives to the graphics art company Digital Domain to move a development lab to the area. A massive 115,000 square foot office and studio complex was constructed on the western side of Port St. Lucie and occupied by about 300 software and graphics personnel early in 2012. Continue reading
INTRODUCTION
There are hundreds or even thousands of commercial tools available for software development, software project management, maintenance, testing, quality control and other key activities associated with software projects. There are also hundreds of proprietary, internal tools which companies build for their own use but not for sale to others. Continue reading
The cost of finding and fixing bugs or defects is the largest single expense element in the history of software. Bug repairs start with requirements and continue through development. After release bug repairs and related customer support costs continue until the last user signs off. Over a 25 year life expectancy of a large software system in the 10,000 function point size range almost 50 cents out of every dollar will go to finding and fixing bugs. Continue reading