Software Engineering - Report on a NATO-sponsored conference in 1968
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| Audience/Grade: | College Freshman-Graduate |
| Discipline(s): |
Computer Science History of Science and Technology Information Systems Information Technology Software Engineering |
| Special Topic(s): | |
| Learning Resource Type: |
Reference - Article/Document |
| Media Type: |
Audio |
| Author(s): |
Brian Randell F. L. Bauer H.J. Helms L. Bolliet Peter Naur |
| Description: | Historical report that was the first to define software engineering. Sponsored by the NATO Science Committee, the report documents the results of a conference held in Garmisch, Germany October 7-11, 1968. "The present report is concerned with a problem crucial to the use of computers, viz. the so-called software, or programs, developed to control their action. The report summarises the discussions at a Working Conference on Software Engineering, sponsored by the NATO Science Committee. The Conference was attended by more than fifty people, from eleven different countries, all concerned professionally with software, either as users, manufacturers, or teachers at universities. The discussions cover all aspects of software including • relation of software to the hardware of computers • design of software • production, or implementation of software • distribution of software • service on software." |
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| Keywords: | software engineering history of computing |
| Referenced By: |
Cold War comfort on software engineering’s birthday - Yesterday's issues at 40 |
| Usage Tip | |
| Use of Resource: |
Conclusions and discussion: "This paper has attempted to present a possible method by which large organisations, such as the United Kingdom government, might test the software supplied by computer manufacturers to its installations. Its main aim may be described as an attempt to ensure that new computer installations can rapidly take on the work for which they were purchased by ensuring that installations have the best available information on which to plan their work. It is a procedure aimed at elucidating the facts about software; what works and what does not and how well does it work? The cost of doing this sort of exercise is not trivial but with the number of computer systems involved, the cost per installation is quite small and if the procedure can speed up the take-on of work by allowing the confident use of proved software, rather than the hesitant use of the unknown, it will prove worthwhile. Hopefully, such a procedure would encourage the computer manufacturers to improve their own quality assurance procedures, perhaps even to the point where use of testing of software becomes unnecessary." |
| Difficulty: |
Difficult |
| Interactivity Level: |
Very low |
| Version Info | |
| Publication Date: | October 2008 |
| Platform/Format: |
WWW |
| Cost: |
Free |
| Download URL: | http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/brian.randell/NATO/nato1968.PDF |
| Metadata: |
IEEE LOM Record |
| Collection: |
NEEDS
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