Programming productivity

Programming productivity

Programming productivity refers to a variety of software development issues and methodologies affecting the quantity and quality of code produced by an individual or team. Key topics in productivity discussions have included:

* Amount of code that can be created or maintained per programmer (often measured in source lines of code per day")
* Detecting and avoiding errors (through techniques like six sigma management, zero defects coding, and Total Quality Management)
* Software cost estimation (cost being a direct consequence of productivity)

The relative importance of programming productivity has waxed and waned along with other industry factors, such as:

* The relative costs of manpower versus machine
* The size and complexity of the systems being built
* Highly publicized projects that suffered from delays or quality problems
* Development of new technologies and methods intended to address productivity issues
* Quality management techniques and standards

An extensive literature exists dealing with such issues as software productivity measurement, defect avoidance and removal, and software cost estimation. The heyday of such work was during the 1960s-1980s, when huge mainframe development projects often ran badly behind schedule and over budget. A potpourri of development methodologies and software development tools were promulgated, often championed by independent consultants brought in as troubleshooters on critical projects. The U.S. Department of Defense was responsible for much research and development in this area, as software productivity directly affected large military procurements.

In those days, large development projects were generally clean-sheet implementation of entire systems, often including their own system-level components (such as data management engines and terminal control systems). As a result, large organizations had enormous data processing staffs, with hundreds or thousands of programmers working in assembly language, COBOL, JOVIAL, Ada, or other tools of the day.

Modern computer use relies much more heavily on the use of standardized platforms and products, such as the many general-purpose tools available today under Linux and the Microsoft operating systems. Organizations have more off-the-shelf solutions available, and computer use is a basic job requirement for most professionals. Tasks that once would have required a small development team are now tackled by a college intern using Microsoft Excel. The result has been a trend toward smaller IT staffs and smaller development projects. With larger projects, techniques like rapid prototyping have shortened development project timelines, placing a priority on quick results with iterative refinement. Traditional programming-in-the-large has thus become rare – the domain of industry giants like Microsoft and IBM. As a result, although programming productivity is still considered important, it is viewed more along the lines of engineering best practices and general quality management, rather than as a distinct discipline.

A need for greater programmer productivity was the impetus for categorical shifts in programming paradigms. These came from

Speed of code generationApproach to maintenanceEmerging technologiesLearning curve (training required)Approach to testing

References

* "Software Cost Estimation with Cocomo II", Barry W. Boehm "et al.", Prentice Hall, 2000. ISBN-13: 978-0130266927.
* "Developing Products in Half the Time: New Rules, New Tools", Preston G. Smith and Donald G. Reinertsen, Wiley, 1997. ISBN-13: 978-0471292524
* "Programming Productivity", Capers Jones, Mcgraw-Hill, 1986. ISBN-13: 978-0070328112
* "Estimating Software Costs", Capers Jones, McGraw-Hill, 2007. ISBN-13: 978-0071483001


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Programming language — lists Alphabetical Categorical Chronological Generational A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that… …   Wikipedia

  • Programming tool — A programming tool or software development tool is a program or application that software developers use to create, debug, maintain, or otherwise support other programs and applications. The term usually refers to relatively simple programs that… …   Wikipedia

  • Pair programming — is an agile software development technique in which two programmers work together at one workstation. One, the driver, types in code while the other, the observer (or navigator[1]), reviews each line of code as it is typed in. The two programmers …   Wikipedia

  • SAC programming language — Infobox programming language name = SAC paradigm = array, functional year = 1994 designer = Sven Bodo Scholz, Clemens Grelck, et al developer = latest release version = latest release date = typing = static, strong implementations = dialects =… …   Wikipedia

  • object-oriented programming (OOP) — Computer programming that emphasizes the structure of data and their encapsulation with the procedures that operate upon it. It is a departure from traditional or procedural programming. OOP languages incorporate objects that are self contained… …   Universalium

  • Object-oriented programming — Programming paradigms Agent oriented Automata based Component based Flow based Pipelined Concatenative Concurrent computing …   Wikipedia

  • R (programming language) — R Paradigm(s) multi paradigm: object oriented, imperative, functional, procedural, reflective Appeared in 1993[1] …   Wikipedia

  • Chapel (programming language) — Chapel is a new parallel programming language developed by Cray.[1] It is being developed as part of the Cray Cascade project, a participant in DARPA s High Productivity Computing Systems (HPCS) program, which has the goal of increasing… …   Wikipedia

  • C Sharp (programming language) — The correct title of this article is C# (programming language). The substitution or omission of the # sign is because of technical restrictions. C# Paradigm(s) multi paradigm: structured, imperative …   Wikipedia

  • Fourth-generation programming language — A fourth generation programming language (1970s 1990) (abbreviated 4GL) is a programming language or programming environment designed with a specific purpose in mind, such as the development of commercial business software.[1] In the history of… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”