Software Crisis
The Software Crisis
• The most visible symptoms of the software crisis are o Late delivery, over budget o Product does not meet specified requirements o Inadequate documentation
• Some observations on the software crisis o “A malady that has carried on this long must be called normal” (Booch, p. 8) o Software system requirements are moving targets o There may not be enough good developers around to create all the new software that users need o A significant portion of developers’ time must often be dedicated to the maintenance or preservation of geriatric software
Software engineering was spurred by the so-called software crisis of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, which identified many of the problems of software development. Many software projects ran over budget and schedule. Some projects caused property damage. A few projects caused loss of life. The software crisis was originally defined in terms of productivity, but evolved to emphasize quality. Some used the term software crisis to refer to their inability to hire enough qualified programmers.
Cost and Budget Overruns: The OS/360 operating system was a classic example. This decade-long[citation needed] project from the 1960s eventually produced one of the most complex software systems at the time. OS/360 was one of the first large (1000 programmers[citation needed]) software projects. Fred Brooks claims in The Mythical Man Month that he made a multi-million dollar mistake of not developing a coherent architecture before starting development.
Property Damage: Software defects can cause property damage. Poor software security allows hackers to steal identities, costing time, money, and reputations.
Life and Death: Software defects can kill. Some embedded systems used in radiotherapy machines failed so catastrophically that they administered lethal doses of radiation to patients. The most famous of these failures is the Therac 25 incident.
Peter G. Neumann has kept a contemporary list of software problems and
• The most visible symptoms of the software crisis are o Late delivery, over budget o Product does not meet specified requirements o Inadequate documentation
• Some observations on the software crisis o “A malady that has carried on this long must be called normal” (Booch, p. 8) o Software system requirements are moving targets o There may not be enough good developers around to create all the new software that users need o A significant portion of developers’ time must often be dedicated to the maintenance or preservation of geriatric software
Software engineering was spurred by the so-called software crisis of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, which identified many of the problems of software development. Many software projects ran over budget and schedule. Some projects caused property damage. A few projects caused loss of life. The software crisis was originally defined in terms of productivity, but evolved to emphasize quality. Some used the term software crisis to refer to their inability to hire enough qualified programmers.
Cost and Budget Overruns: The OS/360 operating system was a classic example. This decade-long[citation needed] project from the 1960s eventually produced one of the most complex software systems at the time. OS/360 was one of the first large (1000 programmers[citation needed]) software projects. Fred Brooks claims in The Mythical Man Month that he made a multi-million dollar mistake of not developing a coherent architecture before starting development.
Property Damage: Software defects can cause property damage. Poor software security allows hackers to steal identities, costing time, money, and reputations.
Life and Death: Software defects can kill. Some embedded systems used in radiotherapy machines failed so catastrophically that they administered lethal doses of radiation to patients. The most famous of these failures is the Therac 25 incident.
Peter G. Neumann has kept a contemporary list of software problems and