Software crisis: Difference between revisions
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* [http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd03xx/EWD340.PDF Edsger Dijkstra: The Humble Programmer] (PDF file, 473kB) |
* [http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd03xx/EWD340.PDF Edsger Dijkstra: The Humble Programmer] (PDF file, 473kB) |
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* [[Brian Randell]]: [http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/brian.randell/NATO/ The NATO Software Engineering Conferences] |
* [[Brian Randell]]: [http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/brian.randell/NATO/ The NATO Software Engineering Conferences] |
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* Markus Bautsch: ''Cycles of Software Crises'' in: [http://www.enisa.europa.eu/doc/pdf/publications/enisa_quarterly_12_07.pdf ENISA Quarterly on ''Secure Software''] (PDF file; 1,86MB) |
* Markus Bautsch: ''Cycles of Software Crises'' in: [https://web.archive.org/web/20080913120558/http://www.enisa.europa.eu/doc/pdf/publications/enisa_quarterly_12_07.pdf ENISA Quarterly on ''Secure Software''] (PDF file; 1,86MB) |
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{{Edsger Dijkstra}} |
{{Edsger Dijkstra}} |
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Revision as of 04:30, 2 December 2017
Software crisis is a term used in the early days of
The term "software crisis" was coined by some attendees at the first
The major cause of the software crisis is that the machines have become several orders of magnitude more powerful! To put it quite bluntly: as long as there were no machines, programming was no problem at all; when we had a few weak computers, programming became a mild problem, and now we have gigantic computers, programming has become an equally gigantic problem.
—The Humble Programmer (EWD340), Communications of the ACM
The causes of the software crisis were linked to the overall complexity of hardware and the software development process. The crisis manifested itself in several ways:
- Projects running over-budget
- Projects running over-time
- Software was very inefficient
- Software was of low quality
- Software often did not meet requirements
- Projects were unmanageable and code difficult to maintain
- Software was never delivered
The main cause is that improvements in computing power had outpaced the ability of programmers to effectively utilize those capabilities. Various processes and methodologies have been developed over the last few decades to improve software quality management such as procedural programming and object-oriented programming. However software projects that are large, complicated, poorly specified, and involve unfamiliar aspects, are still vulnerable to large, unanticipated problems.
See also
- AI winter
- List of failed and overbudget custom software projects
- Fred Brooks
- Technological singularity
References
- ^ "NATO Software Engineering Conference 1968". Retrieved 26 April 2017.
- ^ "Report on a conference sponsored by the NATO SCIENCE COMMITTEE Garmisch, Germany, 7th to 11th October 1968" (PDF). Retrieved 26 April 2017.
- ^ "E.W.Dijkstra Archive: The Humble Programmer (EWD 340)". Retrieved 26 April 2017.
External links
- Edsger Dijkstra: The Humble Programmer (PDF file, 473kB)
- Brian Randell: The NATO Software Engineering Conferences
- Markus Bautsch: Cycles of Software Crises in: ENISA Quarterly on Secure Software (PDF file; 1,86MB)
