Vaughn Frick

W. Vaughn Frick is an early pioneer in computer-aided software engineering as well as structured analysis and structured design. With an MS in Industrial & Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan, Frick entered the computing field in 1970. In 1985, while working on various software engineering processes at Nastec Corporation, Frick discovered the "missing link" transformation between Larry Constantine's Structured Design methods and the Ed Yourdon/Tom Demarco Structured Analysis for Business Systems. The technique proved so popular that Frick-based SA/SD training programs soon replaced the earlier Youdon/Demarco methods.

Frick's transformation from Structured Analysis to Structured Design, based on General Systems Theory, was literally, based on the geometry of data flow diagrams and structure charts. Using foam balls to represent data flow processes and colored twine to represent data and control flows, Frick visually demonstrated that, by selecting the "controlling process" and picking up the network of processes by the controll process's foam ball, the structure chart literally "fell into place," in a manner identical to the construct predicted by Larry Constantine's structured design principles - including minimized coupling and maximized cohesion.

Frick then worked with the software design team of Albert F. Case, Jr. to translate this geometric property into a set of mathematical algorithms, ultimately embedded in a variety of computer-aided software engineering tools.