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imlii'iiii mmI' STAND & TECH PUBLICATIONS

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NBSIR 81-2388

Synopsis of Interviews from a

Survey of Software Tool Usage

November 1981

Sponsored by:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Bureau of Standards

Renter for Programming Science and Technology

istitute for Computer Sciences and Technology

fashington, DC 20234

81-2388

1981

NBSIR 81-2388

SYNOPSIS OF INTERVIEWS FROM A

SURVEY OF SOFTWARE TOOL USAGE

Herbert Hecht

SoHaR Incorporated

1040 S. LaJolla Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90035

November 1 981

Sponsored by:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Bureau of Standards

Center for Programming Science and Technology

Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology

Washington, DC 20234

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, Malcolm Baldrige, Secretary

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS, Ernest Ambler, Director

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION . 1

CLASSIFICATION OF SURVEY PARTICIPANTS 2

QUESTIONNAIRE USED IN TOOL USER INTERVIEWS 3

TOOLS INTERVIEWS 6

TOOLS CLASSIFICATION 73

REFERENCES 76

PAGE 1

SECTION 1

INTRODUCTION

This report contains synopses of all Interviews conducted as part of a Survey of

the Development and Use of Software Tools In Industry and a classification of

the tools encountered. The findings of the survey and conclusions drawn from

these are presented In a companion volume to this report Cl3. Notes on the

scope of the survey, selection of participants, and many other data essential

for proper Interpretation of the material presented here are contained In the

above reference, and It Is recommended that the synopses and tools

classification be used only In connection with the companion volume.

The survey was conducted for the National Bureau of Standards, Institute for

Computer Sciences and Technology (NBS/ICST) under contract NB79SBCA0273 by SoHaR

Incorporated. This report Is furnished under Work Assignment No. 2, Survey of

the Development and Use of Software Tools In Industry, The overall scope of the

Work Assignment Is Identified as follows;

Determine how different programming environments affect the use of and

direct the development of tools for quality software. Report the current

state of the art regarding the development and use of tools In each of the

programming environments.

The Software Tools Studies contract Is one of a series of efforts undertaken by

NBS/ICST In connection with Its responsibilities under the Brooks Act (PL

89-306) which alms to aid Government agencies to Improve the cost effectiveness

In the selection, acquisition, and utilization of automatic data processing

resources. NBS efforts to satisfy Its responsibilities under the Brooks Act

Include research In computer science and technology, and the development of

Federal government-wide standards for data processing equipment, practices, and

software. The software standards efforts comprise six families of standards,

one of which deals with software quality control. Although It Is recognized

that software tools can aid In software quality control, NBS/ICST has concluded

that there did not exist a clear body of techniques for making effective use of

tools. The present and related efforts are Intended to fill this gap.

The purpose of this report Is to document the detailed data In a form which will

be useful for further research In the tool area. Section 2 of this report

contains a classification of survey participants which may be helpful to readers

who want to only selected classes of users, e. g.. Government organizations.

Section 3 contains the questionnaire on which the Interviews were based, and the

synopses proper are presented In the order of the Interview numbers In Section

4. The classification of tool features of the tools encountered In the survey

will be found In Section 5. This classification uses the principles and

terminology described In C2H,
PAGE 2

SECTION 2

CLASSIFICATION OF SURVEY PARTICIPANTS

The following table presents a classification by size of software staff and type

of organization of the 23 primary participants In the survey. Three

organizations which volunteered Information but which were not contacted In person are designated as Nos. 24 - 26 In Section 4. These are all private and

Include one each In the small, medium, and very large categories. Where two

Interviews were conducted at a given organization, these are designated A and B

In the table.

TABLE 2 - 1 CLASSIFICATION OF SURVEY PARTICIPANTS

Inter- Type of Organization

view Private Gov't Government

No. Support

12

3

4A

4B

5

6

7

8

9

10A

10B

llA

11B

12A

12B

13

14A

14B

15

16

17

18A

18B

19

20

21

22

23

Letters designate size of professional staff.

S = small (<15) M = med I urn ( 15 - 39) L = large (40 - 99) V = very I. 099)
PAGE 3

SECTION 3

QUESTIONNAIRE USED IN TOOL USER INTERVIEWS

Part I - Tool User Information

1. Organizational Identification of user.

2. Approximate annual budget of programming and computer operation departments

(alternatively, the number of ana I yst/prgrammers and the number of computer

operators)

3. Relationship to ultimate software user, and the nature of user Imposed

requirements (govt, standards, etc.).

4. Range of programmer skills.

5. On-sIte computer equipment and operating systems.

6. Off-sIte equipment, operating and communications systems pertinent to tools

uasage.

7. Programming languages now used and considered for the future.

8. Software requirements and design (formality, reviews, updates).

9. Programming environment (size of groups, on-line vs. batch).

10. Software quality control (organization, formality, standards).

11. Documentation (responsibl ity, formality, standards).

12. Changes and software maintenance (responsibility, procedures).

12A. What are the major software problems In this environment.

13. Participation In computer and software standards efforts.

14. Awareness of software engineering literature and meetings.

15. Circumstances of the first tool acquisition.

16. Tools currently In use.

17. Tools no longer In use.

18. Tools considered for future use.

19. Who decides on tool procurement and by what criteria.

20. How are new tools Introduced (formal and Informal training, documentation

only).
PAGE 4

TOOL USER INTERVIEW

Part II - Tcx)ls Information

21. Tool identification, originator, and date of first use.

22. Tool ownership data (licensed, on time-share, etc.).

23. Original purpose and current appi Icatlon(s) of tool.

24. Tool and target software data.

25. Tool usage data (set-up time, run time, analysis required)

26. Typical usage (case history).

27. Frequency and conditions of usage (customer specs).

28. Benefits of usage (vs. prior practice).

29. Standards serviced or enforced by the tool.

30. Principal original reason for tool acquisition; were other tools

considered, and what was the basis for selecting this tool.

31. Current reason for tool usage,; target software characteristics Important

for use (e. g., safety critical applications, very tight timing requirements).

32. Formal cost/benefit anlaysls If available.

33. Are all features of this tool used? Most and least used features.

34. Suggested tool Improvements.

35. Tool rel labl I Ity/avallabI I Ity/maintalnabll Ity.

36. General comments on tool use.

37. Recommendations for other appI I Icatlons of this tool.

38. Compatibility of this tool with other tools and with the procedures of the

computing environment.

39. Are some functions of this tool also provided by other tools or general

support software? Where should these functions be located?

40. Suggestions for Integration of this tool Into a highly automated

environment or Into a library.

41. How will anticipated future software engineering developments affect the

usefulness of this tool.
PAGE 5

Effect of tool usage on software quality.

Effect of tool usage on personnel requirements.

What documentation was furnished with this tool?

Was special training provided with this tool?

How useful Is It?
PAGE 6

SECTION 4

TOOLS INTERVIEWS

TOOLS INTERVIEW #1

Part I

.

1. This Interview was conducted at one of several major software development

groups of a large defense and aerospace contractor,

2. Over 500 programmers, analysts, and related personnel are employed,

3. In most cases the company Is the ultimate user. Even where programs are

deliverable under government contracts, they are In only a few cases used by

other personnel. The typical user Is an employee working on a U, S, Government

contract. Occasionally, specific tools or their capabilities are specified In

the contract,

4. All programmers are believed to be degreed professionals (there may be a few

exceptions). The official labor designation does not distinguish skill levels.

The general Impression Is of a highly competent programming staff.

5. There are six major computing centers (plus a large number of small

computers). The centers have large mainframe computers from at least three

leading manufacturers plus some specialty computers.

6. The organzatlon has occasionally used off-sIte computing but does not do so

at present,

7. In the past, the principal programming language has been FORTRAN. Recently

Structured FORTRAN has been used more frequently. A number of other languages

are also aval lable,

8. In some cases software development methodology Is specified In the contract

or by project management personnel. More frequently, these requirements are self-imposed by the programming staff.

9. The programming environment or the structure for a standard programming

group Is not specified as such. Typical groups range from three to ten

programmers. A chief and a design monitor are usually appointed. The

assignment of a librarian depends on the task to be performed.

10. Formal software quality control Is usually performed by a dedicated group

that handles hardware QA as well. In-house standards are used.

11. All software products are delivered with extensive documentation. The

documents are generated by the project group. There Is no specialist

organization for documentation; however, editorial assistance Is available If

desired. As much as possible, documentation has been automated — flowcharters

and word processors are used.
PAGE 7

12. There are no separate maintenance groups. Development personnel continues

to be assigned to a project to do maintenance.

13. There Is participation In standards efforts.

14. Personnel are frequent contributors to professional literature and

meetings.

15. Initially the software tools were acquired through the 'side door' from

outside sources. Management was not Interested In the develoment or use of

software tools. In one such effort. In the late 1960's, a test analyzer was

acquired and was shown to be effective. Interest In tools Increased somewhat

after that time.

16. More than 100 tools are listed In a current software tools catalog which Is available to employees. About 24 of these are frequently used tools.

17. The most frequent cause of tool abandonment Is the availability of a better

tool. E. g., an early flowcharter has been replaced by a better one,

18. Tools favored for future development are those that deal with resource

scheduling, management control, data management, and Inventory control. There

Is little Interest In central development of new programming or test tools

because (a) an adequate amount are available, and (b) Individual programming

groups are doing their own thing.

19. The manager of a software tools group decides on central tools procurement,

subject to a budget constraint,

20. When new tools are Introduced, formal training Is always provided. It

consists of lectures with the usual audlo-visual aids, and also a workshop as part of which the tool Is used or Input and output files are examined.

Bulletins alert management and employees to the availability of new tools.

Part 1

This part Is provided for two representative tools, a large management oriented

tool, and a small documentation tool.

1. Management Tool.

This tool Is a project scheduling and management program. It Is In use for most

major projects at this facility. It was developed In-house and Is considered

proprietary. It Is used to schedule tasks and to track costs throughout the

life of major projects. It Is preferred to the conventional government project

management files even by government personnel. The tool resides on disk and can be called whenever needed. Set-up time for a new project ranges from one to

two weeks. User data Input Is coached by a screen display on an Interactive

terminal. Minimum skills required for usage. Output Is easily uncierstandab I e.
PAGE 8

A modification Is now In progress to change the Input language from fixed format

to a free-format procedural language. This change was desired by the users.

This Is a stand-alone tool. The output Is constrained to be compatible with a plotter. Integration with the plot program and with library routines may be

desirable.

User documentation Is fairly extensive and Is targeted at personnel who are not

software professionals. A four-hour training program Is available for

first-time users.

2. Documentation Tool (Flowcharter)

.

This tool generates flowcharts for a special class of structured FORTRAN code.

It was developed by the company and Is considered proprietary. Prior to

undertaking the development, a search for available tools was made. None of

those encountered was suitable for this specific language or the environment.

The tool works In conjunction with an In-house developed preprocessor.

Originators of other structured FORTRAN preprocessors refused to furnish source

decks and documentation which are required by DoD regulation If the structured

code Is furnished as the primary program. This tool was developed particularly

for the key words and syntax of the preprocessor.

The tool resides on disk. Set-up time Is minimal. This tool reduces

documentation time and the demand for art services. Orginally there weere

options for paper size. An analysis of tools usage showed that only 8-1/2x11 was used. The options have recently been eliminated. The tool has been very

stable over the last three to four years. Availability and reliability are not

a problem. Little maintenance Is being performed.

There Is a User’s Manual and a brief training period, about one hour. Is usually

provided for new users.
PAGE 9

TOOLS INTERVIEW #2

1. This Interview was conducted at the data processing department of a medium-size regional bank.

2. There are 25 programmers In the department. Programming Is also done In two

other departments by two or three people each (part time/.

3. The department serves the bank and does some data processing for

correspondent banks. Some regulations of the Controller of Currency and the

State Banking Commission affect data processing. Typically these specify the

Information to be processed or preserved but not software requirements per se. Some requirements for security and portability of programs are Implied by these

regulations.

4. Minimum requirements are two years of programming experience and knowledge

of two of the three languages used. The most highly rated employee (not

necessarily the most experienced) has two years of college and ten years of

experience, practically all with this bank. Personnel turnover Is not a problem.

5. There Is one large mainframe by a major manufacturer which does the bulk of

the financial record keeping. Two large size m I n

I -computer s serve,

respectively, 900 teller terminals and the trust department. Another mini Is

being ordered.

6. Off-sIte computing is used for specialized functions; credit card

processing, monthly financial model, personnel records. Interface Is by

shipping records, RJE and on-line terminals.

7. Languages, In order of Importance, are assembly, COBOL and PL/1.

8. Most of the applications software Is developed In-house. Requirements are determined by the user, then evaluated by a joint processing team. Estimates of

development cost and run time/resources costs are generated, and these must be

approved by the Executive Council before proceeding. For projects In excess of

$10,000 development cost detailed specifications are developed. There are periodic reviews. Including a post-development review before the program Is

declared operational. Updates are requested by the user and are subject to

similar controls as new programs.

9. Coding sheets and terminals are used. There Is a de facto chief programmer

for each project. Teams range In size from two to five.

10. Quality control Is mostly concerned with procedural matters. Testing Is

conducted by a joint user-developer team. There are In-house standards.

11. Users write their own documentation which Is reviewed b- the data

processing department. Flowcharts, listings, and maintenance manuals are

prepared by the DP department and are kept In a library. In-house standards are

used.
PAGE 10

12. Changes, whether corrective or enhancements, must be requested by the user

(DP department can suggest that these be requested). A formal priority system

for changes Is maintained by the department.

13. Personnel participates In ABA standards activities. Location of serial

numbers on checks was given as an example. There Is little awareness of

computer or software standards.

14. There Is no participation In software professional activities and little

awareness of literature In the field.

15. A library system was acquired In 1974 because the operating system was very

Inefficient as a file handler. It was Justified on the basis of savings In

programmers time In a cost/benefit analysis.

16. In addition to the library system there Is a sort program and a number of

enhancements of the operating system.

17. An early sort program was discarded as being functionally unsulted and the

present one substituted.

18. A much more secure operating system Is being considered but there Is

hesitation about Installing It because of possible Incompatibilities with

another computer which Is at present the back-up facility.

19. All tool procurement In excess of $ 1,000.- (which In effect means all

tools) must be approved by a committee. Rate-of-return criteria are generally

used. The Improved operating system was proposed on the basis of security

without economic trade-offs.

20. Formal training by the tool developer has been used In the past.

PART I I The key tool described Is the library system (see 15. above). It Is a proprietary program and Is being leased from the developer. It was procured for

programmer assistance In development and maintenance and Is still used for this

purpose. It Is on disk and there Is no set-up effort required. Programmers use

It as "free".

Not all tool options are used. Examples of unused features are hierarchical

sIgn-on and some access control options. There were no reliability problems and

no Improvements were suggested. Integration In an overall software development

system was considered feasible but no specific benefits were Identified. The

tool did save programmers' time and was considered to earn Its keep. The user

manual was rated satisfactory and training was provided by the developer. New

employees are sent to a one-day class given periodically by the developer.
PAGE 11

TOOLS INTERVIEW #3

Part I

1, This Interview was conducted at a national Data Center for a fiscal function

of a U. S. Government Department.

2, The annual budget Is $10 Million; there are 26 programmers and 13 computer

operators,

3, End users of the programs are other organizations of the same Department.

User operations are predominantly on-line. Users specify functions only. A

Department Directive specifies languages.

4.. System Programmers are mostly degreed, 15+ years of experience, GS-13&14.

Application programmers average 8+ years of experience. Entry level requires 2

- 3 years of experience. Recently there has been some upgrading of computer

operations personnel Into programming positions,

5. A major mainframe (dual processor) serves about 1300 interactive terminals.

Twenty-five terminals are used by programmers, and another 25 are used In the

Data Center for data entry. The rest are distributed all over the U. S.

6. No use of off-slte computing equipment. They access other data bases.

7. ALGOL used with computer manufacturer's Data Management System. COBOL

considered for future use.

8. There are formal requirements and design specifications. They are subjected

to extensive coordination and require approval at several management levels.

9. Programming groups are formed as needed. One recent project included eight

programmers at the Data Center and two located at the East Coast,

10. There Is no formal QA organization at the Data Center, The most skll led

personnel usually review programs prior to release. There Is some QA on the

data base at the East Coast.

11. There does not seem to be a formal requirement for documentation, but

documentation is being generated.

12. Changes are Initiated by either a trouble report or a change in the

functional specification. About 95/6 of the trouble reports are written by Data

Center personnel,

13. There Is no participation in standards activities,

14. There Is only minimal awareness of software engineering activities.

15. A library tool was developed in-house, based on the operating system

utilities. In 1976. It has been in use since then.
PAGE 12

16. The center uses the manufacturer’s Data Management System, the library tool

described In Cl5D and several editing tools,

17. An early version of the editor was abandoned when the new one was Installed.

18. It Is Intended to Install a new (commercial) library management tool. Also

there Is considerable Interest In computer aided Instruction programs. The

latter are aimed at user personnel. They are currently arranging for consulting

services In this area.

19. The Data Center Director Is responsible for tools procurement.

20. The use of ALGOL as the primary language In the Data Center represents a costraint on acquisition of new tools. Tools which are being acquired are put

Into operation after the application programmers have been trained. This

training Involves classroom Instruction and review of vendor supplied

documentation. Sometimes In-house personnel conduct training.

Part II

The key tool described In the data management system which was originally leased

from the computer manufacturer but has been purchased In the meantime. The tool

standardizes set-up and maintenance of the data base. It provides systematic

dumping and recovery of files by means of audit trails. It is In operation all

the time. For the specific mainframe used here, there were no suitable

alternate data base management systems.

Six months were required for set-up and familiarization with the tool. It was selected after they compared Its results with the previous non-automated data

base handling and found significant savings In programmer time. Recently the

Department requested that a new data retrieval program be Initiated, There was

considerable pressure from Washington to get this done In a short time. By use

of the tool, which eliminates a lot of the detail work of file administration,

this work was accomplished on time.

All available features are believed to be used. Functionally the tool meets

all requirements. The response time Is slow and they are looking for

Improvement In this. Reliability Is generally good. A separate access control

(security) program Is currently being used and this could be combined with the

data management function.

Documentation was considered good. The tool Is being updated twice a year and

the documentation Is brought up to date at the same time. The manufacturer’s

User Group provides training which Is rated as very effective.
PAGE 13

TOOLS INTERVIEW #4A

Part I

1. This Interview was conducted at one of several programming groups at a military Installation,

2. About 40 military programmers and over 100 support contractor programmers

are Involved.

3. This Is a service organization furnishing simulations, training aids, and

other support software to using commands. Standards are mostly self-imposed.

4. The' function Is considered a high-technology area. Personnel have 3-5

years programming experience,, and up to 20 years of experience with tactical

Information and control systems.

5. There are nine computing centers, each with three or four computers (mostly

military designs) with a variety of operating systems. There are many

programming stations and other peripherals.

6. Some of the systems have access to the ARPAnet.

7. FORTRAN and CMS-2 are heavily used, PL/1 and ALGOL are used to a lesser

extent. There Is very little COBOL programming. Several assembly languages are also In use.

8. There are no structure requirements for the design or development of

programs,

9. A typical programming environment Includes 15-20 programmers, each working

at an Interactive terminal at his own desk. Programmers have a variety of

software tools at their disposal Usee 16 for meaning of tool In this

organization!!.

10. Quality control Is handled by each project according to Its needs. Usually

one or two people are assigned to this activity. Published standards are used

as a guide rather than as compliance documents.

11. Documentation for R&D projects Is very Informal and frequently Insufficient.

For operational projects, documentation Is very extensive but not of uniformly

good quality. Usually documentation starts early In the life of a project.

12. Requirements for program change are generated by

1) an operational user trouble report

2) functional changes required by the sponsor (Washington)

3) the development group Itself,

All changes and other maintenance actions must be approved by a fairly high

management level.

13. There Is no Involvement In standards activities.
PAGE 14

14. There Is no Involvement In software engineering activities.

15. The first major tool was developed In the mid-1970s. It was a command-communications environment simulator,

16. There are 20-25 tools available to each major project. Currently there are

six major projects. With allowance for overlap, there are probably 100 tools In use. (Apparently mostly simulators, exercisers, etc. which are program

specific.)

17. An old text editor was replaced by an Improved one,

18. Tools considered for future use Include a hardware description language and

a requirements language and analyzer. The general areas of Interest are:

formalization of requirements and design Information, test data generators, and

data ana I ys I s/reduct Ion tools.

19. The project manager, frequently based on Inputs from the (Washington)

sponsor, authorizes tools procurement or development,

20. There Is little formal training. Tools are demonstrated and'put to Informal

use prior to committment to actual operation.

Part i

This part was completed for two tools: (1) a large simulator, and (2) a general

purpose editor (considered a small tool).

1. Simulator.

This tool was developed In house over a three year period ending 1978, It

automates the environment for war games and supports software and hardware

development of communication and control equipment. It consists of about 40,000

FORTRAN statements and cost about $ 500,000 to develop. It runs on a commercial

minicomputer and uses the full capacity of this system.

The set-up for a simulation requires about one week. A typical simulation

Involves Interaction of 10 - 15 people. It represents a large saving In

programmer time over custom-designed simulations. The simulation Is essential

for both system testing and training. There are no alternatives available.

Some options are costly and seldom used, partly due to lack of familiarity with

these capabilities on the part of users. The tool undergoes major changes each

year to accomodate user requirements. The program Is considered very reliable.

It was recently used for three consecutive days of war games without crash. No

compatibility Is required or provided. Suggested Improvements Include a standard user Interface so that calls, starts, and Interrupts would be under the same protocol. Ultimately It would be desirable to permit Interconnection of

several tools. There Is extensive documentation. Including an on-line users'

guide with bullt-In tutorials. All personnel using the tool receive 2-3 weeks

of Intensive training.
PAGE 15

2. Text Editor.

This tool was developed by a non-profit corporation and Is In the public domain.

It edits programs, text, or data files. It Is a small program with negligible

set-up time. The run-time depends on size of file but Is usual ly not a factor.

The significant advantage of this editor over conventional editors Is that It

permits both I Ine-or lented editing and cursor-control jed editing. The latter Is

much faster and more convenient when CRT displays are used.

All features are believed to be used. It has good reliability. No maintenance

Is performed by this organization. Suggested Improvements Include the

Incorporation of auditing capability (static checking). An adequate user’s

manual Is available. No special training Is required.
PAGE 16

TOOLS INTERVIEW #4B

Part I

1. This Interview Involves another software organization at the same site.

2. The staff comprises about 50 total personnel (15 Civil Service, rest

contractor)

3. It Is a service organization for a major facility and Is engaged In R&D

activities and software quality control.

4. Most of the CS personnel In the organization are degreeed and have many

years of experience.

5. The organization uses two commercial mainframes, several commercial

minicomputers and a number of military computers.

6. They use other mainframes via dial-up and the ARPAnet.

7. Programming languages are FORTRAN, COBOL, BASIC, CMS-2, and assembly.

8. Software requirements and design specifications are formal and comply with

Ml L-STD-1679(Navy) for embedded systems and with DoD 7935. 1-S for management

Information systems (MIS).

9. There Is wide variation In programming environments due to the differences

In the nature of projects. Both batch and Interactive programming Is used.

10. Software Quality Control Is established as a separate organization.

Practices and Procedures are fully documented.

11. In each project, the project manager Is responsible for the documentation

quantity and quality.

12. The SQC organization assists In Configuration Control and also operates

document and program libraries.

13. Personnel are active In government and Industry standards efforts.

14. Personnel participate In professional activities and have contributed

technical papers In the flelcf.

15. The first tool utilized was a test data generator (1966). It was scenario

driven and generated test data much faster than was possible by other means.

16. Several special purpose tools are available; a tools catalog Is on-line.

17. Some tools become obsolete because better ones are available; at other

times the function for which the tool was designed Is no longer required. No

specific examples of abandoned tools are available.
PAGE 17

18. Desired: a tool that provides formal proof that all system requirements

have been satisfied.

19. Tools procurement and use are controlled by each project manager.

20. Software tools are usually Introduced by means of documentation. Sometimes

on-job-tralning Is provided.

Part 1

The manager Interviewed stated that software standards are the most Important

tool for software development and usage. They are In this environment the most

widely and commonly used means of enforcing desired features In software, and In that sense they constitute tools.
PAGE 18

TOOLS INTERVIEW #5

Part I

1. This Interview was conducted at a developer of word processing systems.

2. 6 programmers. Including some part-timers, are employed.

3. There are no external or Internal standards for software development.

4. Programmers are mostly non-degreed; beginners to 5 yrs experience.

5. The facilities consist of a variety of microcomputers.

6. No off-sIte equipment Ls used.

7. Microcomputer assembly languages

8. There are no explicit standards; owner supervises or reviews all programming

9. The programming environment Is completely unstructured.

10. There Is no formal QA

11. Code Is generated In sel f-documenti ng form

12. After a version Is released, there Is no chance for revisions (because of

widespread use). Very careful check-out prior to release. Including trial use

by outsiders. Is employed to assure suitability for the Intended environment.

Modifications for new versions are recorded.

13. There Is no Involvement in standards activities.

14. There Is very little awareness of software engineering activities.

15. Assemblers and editors that came with the operating systems were the first

tools used.

16. Assemblers, word processors and editors are currently In use.

17. Several assemblers furnished by microcomputer manufacturers were replaced by

a much more efficient assembler that was procured as a tool from an Independent

software developer.

18. Better assemblers and editors are desired.

19. The owner decides on tools procurement,

20. Documentation Is the only form of training.
PAGE 19

Part I I

An assembler that was developed outside the semiconductor Industry was purchased

In 1979, The assembler that came with the computer took about 15 minutes to

assemble a typical word processor program. The new assembler does the same job

In 4 minutes. It also provides Improved Macro handling capability and file

management.

All options of the assembler are used. Reliability Is very satisfactory, and no maintenance Is performed by the user. An opportunity for Integration may exist

In combining the assembler with a file management system. The Instruction

manual that was furnished Is considered adequate.
PAGE 20

TOOL INTERVIEW #6

Part I

1.

This Interview was conducted at the Computation Department of a major

government-support laboratory.

2, The 1980 department budget is $20 Million

3, They are a service organization to all parts of the laboratory. They

receive a constant stream of requirements, some documented, some not.

Programming standards are not specified by the user.

4, With very rare exceptions, all members of the department have degrees.

Senior personnel has up to'30 years experience. Some inexperienced college

graduates are hired,

5, Two very large commercial mainframe computers are In use, one of them a specialized array processor. Additional main frames will be Installed shortly.

In addition, there are 400 minicomputers and about 900 microprocessors In use,

A tailored time-sharing operating system Is in use,

6, Off-site computing is not used,

7, The principal programming language Is FORTRAN, Some COBOL is used for

In-house administrative programs,

8, Most software requirements are self-generated,

9, Programming is done Individually or In groups, depending on availability.

Terminals and batch are used,

10, No separate QA function exists. This is handled as required by specific

projects,

11, There Is a documentation group which Is primarily concerned with proof

reading and document production. Documentation Itself is performed by the

Individual programmers,

12, The unit that produced the product Is responsible for its maintenance,

13, There Is considerable effort at In-house standardization with 3 or 4

activities currently going on. Participation In outside standards organizations

could not be determined,

14, There is participation In professional activities.

15, In-house developed tools were In use in the early 60 's (editors),

16, Many tools currently available: editors, flowcharters, project management

too I s

,
PAGE 21

17. Availability of better tools Is the major reason for abandonment,

18. No specific tools mentioned, but they are always considering new tools.

19. There are no firm criteria for tools acquisition. Local management

decides,

20. First, new tools are validated. Then their presence Is publicized, and

formal class room training Is arranged. Private consultation and on-job

training are also used.

Part 1

The key tool Identified here Is a macro facility that was developed jointly by a number of government-support organizations In the mid-sIxtIes, This department

estimates that It has Invested about 10 man-years In the effort. At present one

programmer Is assigned full-time for updating. The tool provides editing.

Indenting, file management and some diagnostics. The motivation for Its

development and use Is that It saves programmer time but no detailed

cost/benefit analyses were made. It Is realized that similar capabilities are available In commercial tools but they were stated not to meet the detailed

requirements.

The tool Is In the public domain. Its reliability and availability are good. It Is currently being translated from assembly to FORTRAN for ease of maintenance.

The tool has been Integrated with a library facility. Good documentation Is

available on-line and In hard copy. Special editing commands present somewhat

of a problem which Is being overcome by on-the-job training and consulting

services. Adoption of more conventional editing commands may be desirable.
PAGE 22

TOOLS INTERVIEW #1

Part I

1. This Interview was conducted at a data automation division of a military

Instal I at! on.

2. About 140 programmers are employed,

3. The main users of the software are collocated services. Most software

requirements are self-imposed.

4. Most programmers are degreed. The average experience Is estimated to be 20

years.

5. There are seven mainframe computers of three different manufacturers In use.

6. No use Is made of off-sIte facilities.

7. The language Is mostly COBOL ( 90%), some FORTRAN,

8. Headquarters imposes some software requirements, probably mostly In terms of

function.

9. Size of the programming group depends on Job and availability of personnel.

There Is always a lead programmer designated. Programming Is done at

Interactive terminals or batch (over the counter) depending on programmer

preference.

10. There Is no dedicated QA function. All programs are checked by a lead

programmer from another group. Documentation Is also checked by an Independent

person, possibly assigned from a technical editing group.

11. The system specification which describes the program to be produced Is the

Initial documentation. The definitive documentation Is developed from this In an evolutionary manner. The final document Is formal and In a standard format.

Project personnel produce the documentation.

12. The department maintains Its own software. Normally the programmer who

generates a program also maintains It.

13. There Is no participation In standards activities.

14. There Is little Interest In software engineering activities.

15. In the early and mld-60's, some test tools for magnetic tape operations

were developed. At that time the quality of data tapes furnished by other

activities was a problem,

16. About a half-dozen tools are currently In use. At least one of the tools

I s heav 1

1 y used.
PAGE 23

17. On the mainframes of one manufacturer there have been several generations

of tools, old ones being replaced with more capable newer ones. On the other

systems the tools that were originally acquired are still In use.

18. A test data generator Is being considered.

19. Headquarters has final authority on tools procurement. Local supervision

makes recommendations.

20. When a new tool Is acquired. It Is tested. After Is has been found

suitable, users are advised, and formal class room training Is Initiated.

Documentation Is also used.

Part II

The key tool at this facility Is a test analyzer that had been acquired by this

organization from another service. The original purpose was to provide

management with the capability of determining how thoroughly a program had been

tested prior to approving Its release. This Is still the major use. Originally

this tool was operational only on one set of mainframes. Because the

capabilities were considered essential. It was converted for use on all

computers. However, In the process of conversion some capabilities had to be

restricted so that It functions somewhat differently on the various computers.

The run time expansion for this tool Is rather modest but was commented on as being a drawback because the computer facilities are completely loaded. Some

options have been eliminated. All that are currently available are used.

Normally, the tool Is used to Identify that all paths In a program (Including

paths for Improper Input and other exception conditions) have been tested, and

that the test results are correct. It Is also sometimes used as a program debug

aid to Identify the specific path taken by a failed run. Both reliability and

maintainability were judged to be good. The tool has demonstrated Its

effectiveness In Improving software quality. Integration of this tool Into a tools library was viewed as desirable. Good and complete documentation exists.

Training consists of a one-hour lecture.
PAGE 24

TOOLS INTERVIEW #8

Part I

1. This Interview was conducted at one of several geographically distributed

programming divisions of a government agency.

2. 16 programmers plus clerical support are employed. Computer operations are provided by a different office.

3. The system group In Washington defines requirements. Field offices do the

detail programming. Users Include organizations that have their own software

specialists. Users are other organizations within the agency.

4. Target level for programmers is GS-12. First line supervisors are GS-13.

About two-thirds have bachelor degrees (usually not in Computer Science), none

higher. Average experience level is 12 years. Trainees are brought In from

operations or other agencies. They usually have some college training but no degree.

5. The computing equipment consists of four medium size mainframes, three of

which are over 10 years old.

6. Other mainframes of three differrent manufacturers are accessed remotely.

7. Practically all programming Is In COBOL with a little FORTRAN. DML (a

subset of BASIC) Is used as a data base query language.

8. There are agency standards relating to file naming, etc. Local procedures

are considered more demanding and are enforced. They Include walk-thrus, use of

lead programmers, main line flowcharts (used as a design guide). Listings are

reviewed prior to release.

9. Programming Is done In 3 - 4 person groups. Terminals are used for

time-share services, batch for In-house computers.

10. (?A Is supposed to be formal but is actually more or less Informal. Four

types of test are defined: program test, system test, user test, and volume test

(the latter Is a performance test).

11. For programs run on In-house computers, flow charts and operations manuals

are prepared. For programs developed on time-share, there Is little hard-copy

documentation. Programs are supposed to be self-documenting. Systems group in

Washington requires a user guide and frequently generates It there. Word

processors are used for documenting new programs.

12. Corrective ma I ntenance is requested by a scream on phone or 'Technical

Information Dispatch'. Functional maintenance Is requested by the user and Is

screened In Washington. Adaptive maintenance is requested through the central

group In Washington.
PAGE 25

13. There Is no Involvement In standards activities.

14. There Is no Involvement In software engineering activities.

15. The editor provided by the time-share system was described as a good tool.

16. No other Identifiable tools are In use.

17. Some flowcharters were tried and discarded because they did not perform

well.

18. The local manager would consider a tool that audits programming practices.

Also tools for hardware performance and utilization.

19. Approval (budget) from Washington Is required for any significant expense.

Up to $ 1,000.- for a tool -can be handled out of local budget.

20. The time-share service had a four week training course. Now It Is broken

Into several 3 day classes dealing with different subjects.

Part I I

The time-share operating system was here considered the key tool. The system

was acquired through the Washington headquarters. Programmers like the editor

which has very powerful commands (no examples given), and the JCL which Is easy

to use. Up time and response time are rated very good.

The operating system was held to Improve software quality because of good

editing features - as one example: the editor can pick up many compiler

Identified errors and direct the programmer for proper changes. The

documentation Is rated good. No maintenance on the operating system Is

performed at this location.
PAGE 26

TOOLS INTERVIEW #9

Part I

1. This Is a software service organization, primarily programming and test,

founded by Its present technical director. Software tool development

constitutes an appreciable sector of the company *s business.

2. Six programmers are on staff.

3. Self-Imposed standards are In use. On rare occasions clients may request

specific standards or use of tools.

4. Most personnel have an MS In Computer Science with some experience. One

exceptional programmer h'as no formal degree but Is now enrolled In an MS

program.

5. There are no on-slte computers,

6. A time-share upper range minicomputer Is used. On-sIte terminals are fed

through a statistical allocation multiplexer.

7. Structured FORTRAN (two dialects) Is the only language In use.

8. Software design requirements are not formally stated but a high standard Is

enforced through review by the technical director.

9. Most programming Is done on an Individual basis. On a few occasions a group

of two programmers has been formed. All programming Is done on terminals.

10. There Is no formal QA, Mutual Inspection of code and output are used.

11. User guides and reference manuals are generated for all tools. These are also aval I ab I e on line,

12. Each programmer handles hls own changes. Configuration control Is

Informal.

13. Slight Involvement In standards activities.

14. There Is heavy Involvement In software engineering activities.

15. A structured FORTRAN preprocessor was adopted as a production (programming)

tool when the company was started (about 4 years ago).

16. The preprocessor, a test coverage analyzer and a test formatting and

management tool are currently In use. A file manager Is being Introduced.

17. A test data generator was discarded because It was difficult to use and not

comprehensive

I
PAGE 27

18. A software systems development facility Is being planned,

19. Tools procurement or development Is authorized by the technical director

with an Implied profit motive but no formal cost/benefit analyses are being

conducted,

20. Interactive help among staff Is the primary means for training on a new

tool

Part II

The FORTRAN preprocessor was selected as the key tool. It was developed

In-house and Is distinguished from other tools of this type In that It generates

a highly portable FORTRAN output. Formatting and diagnostic capabilities were

also described as an advance over existing preprocessors. The output code Is

optimized for minimum ruri-tlme (the run-time of the preprocessor Is not

optlml zed and It was stated that this Is usually not a material factor). The

tool enforces some design standards, specifically a block structure.

The preprocessor Is constantly In use and has run without failure for the last

six months. It Is being maintained by this organization without reported

problems. The tool Is compatible with other tools In use at this organization,

and Integration Into a software development system Is being considered.

Documentation was considered adequate.
PAGE 28

TOOLS INTERVIEW #10

Part I

1. This Interview was conducted at a computer specialist group supporting the

simulation function for a Federal agency.

2. There are 8 programmers. Some contractor personnel may also be Involved.

3. The group Is responsible for the systems programs for the simulations.

Other departments do specific applications. Standards are self-imposed.

4. The most senior programmer has an MSME degree plus 20 years programming

experience. The least experienced Is a student In computer science.

5. A very large mal nframe^and a medium sized mainframe are In use.

6. No outside computing facilities are used,

7. The predominant language Is FORTRAN but many assembly programs are still In use and have to be maintained.

8. They are now Instituting a requirement for structured programming.

9. Most assignments handled by Individual programmers, primarily on Interactive

terminals.

10. There are no formal QIK requirements but the overall simulation function has

a separate test group.

11. Separate User and Maintenance Documentation Is being generated. They don't

like flowcharts and prefer decision tables. Code Is made self-documenting If

poss I b I e.

12. There Is a librarian for control of changes.

13. There Is no Involvement In standards activities.

14. There Is no Involvement In software engineering professional activities.

15. There are no Individually procured tools In use. They do utilize the a files manager supplied as part of the operating system.

16. General purpose simulation languages and tools associated with them are not

applicable In this environment. They have not Investigated pre-compilers. They

are In general too busy to Investigate these techniques. There are no tools for

Identifying unused options In simulators.

17. An early flowcharter was tried at one time and was discarded,

18-20 Not applicable. No Part II Interview was conducted.
PAGE 29

TOOLS INTERVIEW #10B

Part I

1. This organization handles the general purpose programming for the main

computation center of the same Federal agency. It represents high technology In programming at this facility. It Is not believed that other programming groups

use any tools In the strict sense.

2. There are 150 programmers employed by a support contractor.

3. The programs are generated for scientific and administrative functions at

this fad I Ity.

4. Personnel are mostly degreed and have considerable experience.

5. Approximately ten mainframes from five different manufacturers plus some

specialized computers and minicomputers are used.

6. There Is no use of off-sIte computers.

7. 80^ of the programming Is In FORTRAN, 15^ PL- 1, and the rest COBOL and

assemb I y.

8. Modular programming Is enforced, structured programming encouraged.

9. Programming Is done In groups. Terminals, batch and RJE are used.

10. There Is no separate QA function. They are experimenting with peer group

review.

11. FIPS PUB 38 Is used as a guideline. There Is also a style manual In use. User documentation Is always generated, maintenance documentation only

sometimes. There are standards for header pages, and the programs are made as

sel f “document I ng as possible.

12. There Is formal control on changes. The file manager used by #10A Is also

used here. There are also some library programs In use but details were not

known.

13. They participate In the PASCAL standards group (X3J9).

14. They participate In user groups, and have slight Involvement In software

engineering activities.

15. An early flowcharter was tried many years ago and was found to be of

marginal utility.

16.

Performance measurement tools and a preprocessor are currently in use.
PAGE 30 17,

The flowcharter was not matched to graphics equipment and was difficult to

use.

18. A cross-reference program was recently considered and rejected because (a)

cost and (b) almost the same features were available on an operating system.

19. A local manager decides on tools procurement.

20. On the preprocessor a four hour training session was provided.

Part 1

1

The key tool Is a performance measurement program that was Installed about 6

years ago to Identify computer usage bottlenecks. It Is currently being used

whenever a usage problem Is suspected (once or twice a month). A typical case

Involves very Inefficient tape handling routines. Computer time could In this case be reduced by a factor of 20 through use of the tool. Software clocks In

the computer could be used for the same purpose, but the tool Is more elegant

and saves times for set-up.

Set-up and analysis time are considered small. The tool does not crash and Is

considered reliable. It Is compatible with the computers In use at this

facility. There are no current plans for Integrating It with other tools. The

tool was acquired from another government organization and only sketchy

documentation was furnished. However, this Is considered adequate. Only

on-the-job training Is used.
PAGE 31

TOOLS INTERVIEW #11

A

Part I

1. This Interview was conducted at a research center (a part of a major

government-support organization) that furnishes scientific computer programs to

other research facilities,

2. Eight professional staff and two students are Involved.

3. The primary distribution of the programs Is controlled but they are In the

public domain. It Is expected that copies will be made and used by other than

the primary recipient, and therefore the possibility for correcting errors once

a program has been released is limited. All standards are self-imposed,

4. The staff are all Ph.^D.s In science with one to twenty years experience.

All are very knowledgeable programmers. Students also have programming

experience prior to being hired.

5. Three mainframes, all by a single major manufacturer, and one mid-range

computer are used.

6. Other specialized computing facilities (Including array processors) are

accessed via the ARPAnet,

7. The progamming languges are mostly FORTRAN and assembly. There is also a special purpose language BLAS In use (Basic Linear Algebra Subroutines). No

other languages are being considered.

8. Modular programming Is generally used. There are no other programming

standards. They are now conducting an experiment In use of structured

programming using a public domain preprocessor.

9. Each programmer works on an individual task, RJE and Interactive terminals

are used,

10. The programs furnished by the center are Identified In three quality

classes. For the highest quality class the center conducts acceptance

procedures and the code Is maintained. The acceptance procedures were rather

Informal and can be described as tender loving care. The second class consists

mostly of code contributed by other organizations which Is being maintained

(either by the center or the contributor). No acceptance Is conducted on these

although some test cases may be run (usually those supplied with the program).

The third class consists of non-mal ntal ned code, supplied as caveat emptor .

11. An established format Is used for headers, and this Is the part of the

documentation that is carefully reviewed. It consists of the general header

material and examples of program use. There Is also a formal user*s manual for

most programs. Maintenance relies exclusively on comments. It Is very much

tied to the developer. It Is expected that the developer will maintain the code

even If he leaves the organization because his professional reputation Is
PAGE 32

enhanced by a good program. There are carefully worked out procedures for

attribution of programs.

12. One computer has a librarian function, and use of this for changes Is

mandatory. It Is believed to provide good control. The use of file managers on other computers Is on the honor system and believed to be less effective. Some

changes are made by users. Changes are announced In a semi-annual catalogue,

13. There Is no Involvement In standards, though there Is much concern with

Issues of portability

14. One of the programmers participates In software engineering activities.

15. A batch editor developed at a university 'many years ago* was the first

tool

.

16. Editors, preprocessors, a portability auditor, and file managers are

currently In use.

17. One text editor was not satisfactory - too cumbersome to use, not truly

I nteract Ive.

18. Tools for vectorizatlon of FORTRAN (generate Macros), tools that facilitate

portabllty. See also Part II.

19. The software manager decides on tools procurement.

20. Generally manuals are considered sufficient.

Part 1

1

The key tool described at this organization Is a simulator for an array

processor that runs on the midrange computer (which Is not an array processor).

It Is a proprietary tool that was acquired for a one-time license fee during

1980. The organization expects to acquire the array processor that Is being

simulated and uses the tool In the meantime for program development. The tool

also furnishes timing estimates and this Is considered an Important feature

because It permits code to be optimized.

Set-up time Is not large. The run-time expansion Is about 1000. This Is

considered undesirable but not prohibitive. The tool Is Intermittently used by one programmer. There have been some crashes for unexplained reasons. There Is no protection against Illegal Instructions. The tool Includes an assembler and

loader. A library manager Is under development by the originator of the tool

and this should be helpful. The tool Is believed to Improve software quality

due to good diagnostics. It reduces personnel cost vs. other means of accessing

the array processor (e. g. eliminates the need for travel). The user manual Is acceptable. Training Is available from the originator but was not used.
PAGE 33

TOOLS INTERVIEW #11

Part I

1. This Interview was conducted at one group of the computer and mathematics

research center at the same government-support facility.

2. 30 programmers are employed,

3. The group conducts research on software portability and similar subjects.

The user Is anyone who employs *canned' programs. Standards are self-imposed.

4. Programmers are all degreed, mostly In math and physics. About 25$ have

advanced degrees. Average programming experience Is 5 years.

5. Several large mainframes and two super-minicomputers are In use,

6. At present no off-slte computing Is used,

7. Standard and structured FORTRAN, C- language, and data base manager language

are used. For the future there Is some Interest In PASCAL,

8. The only standards used are enforced by the compilers,

9. Programmers work on Individual tasks, all on Interactive terminals.

10. There Is no formal and little Informal QA,

11. In this group, formal design manuals are being kept. These are available

on-line and In hard copy. All programs also have 'User Interface Manuals',

12. Corrective maintenance Is done In response to 'screams on the phone'.

Adaptations to new computers are done periodically. They are reported,

frequently In the Communications of the ACM.

13. The group leader participates In standards activities,

14. Many members of group are active In software engineering organizations.

15. Specialized FORTRAN compilers were Is use about 10 years ago.

16. The group Is currently working on a highly portable operating system that

Includes several tools. Also, a preprocessor Is In use,

17. An editor was abandoned because It was line oriented and judged difficult

to use In this environment,

18. A portability analyzer, a software development system, a. d a general

language semantics analyzer are being considered.

19. The group leader makes decisions about tools acquisition.
PAGE 34

20. Sometimes formal training Is used for Introducing tools, but this Is not the

general practice.

Part 1

1

The key tool discussed In this Interview Is the portable operating system that

Is being developed by this group and will be In the public domain. The portions

which are available now are In use almost dally and have been successfully

ported to other facilities. They execute more slowly than the standard

operating system from which they are derived but the difference Is not

noticeable to most users. Improvements In the user visual Interface and In better context Isolation for local/global variables are considered desirable.

Other Improvements are being made based on comments from the user group.

The portions that exist now x:an be Integrated with the standard version of this

operating system. The portable version saves considerable effort when the

operating system has to be re-hosted. Portions of the portable system have run for over a year on eight different computers and no crashes have been reported.

The user Interface and the design are well documented. No formal training

program Is being provided.
PAGE 35

TOOLS INTERVIEW #12A

Part I

1. The Interview was held at the programming department for the

telecommunications function of a major government-support organization.

2. The staff Includes about 100 programmers, 50 of which are employees, the

rest contractor personnel. In addition, many engineers do some programming.

3. This office develops software for space communications. Program offices

usually specify the language to be used and may Impose standards on structure,

etc.

4. The average programmer’s, education Is between BS and MS. There are some

non-degreed programmers and some Ph. D.s. Most programmers have several years

experience.

5. There are three midrange mainframes and a number of minicomputers that are specially suited for communications functions.

6. No outside services are used at present.

7. Programming Is 90$ assembly language, 10$ FORTRAN and M-BASIC

8. When the software becomes operational, a formal transfer agreement Is

executed by the developer and the user. Most other development aspects are

controlled informally. See 3. for language specification.

9. Programing Is done In groups of 5 - 8, headed by a Cognizant Development

Engineer. At one time the size of groups got up to 11, and this did not work

out very well. Library services are performed by a separate Software Production

Management Office.

10. There Is a separate QA organization, which acts as agents of the program

office .

11. The documentation Is generated by the programmers but Is produced by the

Software Production Management Office Usee 9j, There are at least a Software

Operations Manual and a Software Specification Document for each program.

Flowcharts are In use now, but there Is a tendency to go to a program design

I anguage.

12. Changes are reviewed by a Change Control Board. Authorized changes are usually made by the developing group. Version control Is exercised by the

Software Production Management office.

13. The department participates In the PASCAL standards effort.

14. There Is some participation In professional activities.
PAGE 36

15. A proprietary program design language was acquired in 1976 by a ’grass

roots’ effort,

16. The program design language and a number of software management tools are currently in use.

17. An early flowcharter was found not suitable.

18. A tool for automatic generation and monitoring of work breakdown structures

(WBS) Is under development. Also, V&V tools developed by a government agency

are being considered. An Improved version of the program design language Is

being Introduced,

19. The program offices authorize tools procurement. There Is considerable

Informal tools usage.

20. Usually tools are Introduced by means of training sessions.

Part II

The key tool discussed at this Interview Is the program design language. It Is

a proprietary software product acquired under a one-time license. Program

structure Is developed by formatting the functional requirements through the

design language. It can be used In a hierarchical manner by going to Increasing

detail. It Is In use on practically all current developments although usage Is

not specifically demanded by customer spec. It allows a more efficient

presentation of control flow than flowcharts. Uniform type face Is considered a benefit. (In their flowcharts, lettering Is compressed when much Information Is

to be presented.)

The tools Is on disk and Is always available. Reliability Is adequate. No

maintenance Is possible because the developer does not furnish source code. It

had been desired to change some of the reserved words but this was not possible.

A replacement for this tool Is currently under consideration which allows

reserved words to be specified by the user. The design language Is compatible

with most features of the computing environment In this office. Documentation

for the design language was not considered to be particularly good. No special

training Is being provided. Programmers were motivated by themselves to get

fami I lar with It.
PAGE 37

TOOLS INTERVIEW #12B

Part I

1, This Interview was conducted In a software development section that

furnishes programing services to program offices,

2, There are 100 programmers, and programming Is also done by engineers. All

told, there may be 300 to 400 people who are doing some programming,

3, Most of the software generated In this section Is for use of a program

office that does not Impose specific standards,

4, Most personnel have a degree In a technical area, up to 20 yrs, experience,

5, The computing equipment consists of three large mainframes (two vendors),

6, Several additional mainframes are accessed via tlmeshare services,

7, Programming Is 80^ FORTRAN or structured FORTRAN, The remainder Is HAL/S,

PL/1 and PASCAL, There Is some use of assembly. For the future more use of

PASCAL Is expected.

8, Section policies require the use of design languages and high level

languages. They also place emphasis on portability and make use of a portability auditor where possible. In addition, a group within the section has

more definitive standards for program structure, reviews, and software

production management,

9, Programming Is done In groups of 4 - 10 headed by a Cognizant Programmer,

Most programmers use Interactive terminals. Some prefer batch,

10, Using projects act as their own QA, There are no universal standards,

11, Programmers are responsible for documenting their code. Sometimes they

also prepare the requirements document In cooperation with the user. Initial QA

on documents Is performed by the Cognizant Programmer, final QA by the user,

12, Configuration control varies with project. Most require fairly strict

configuration control,

13, The section participated In several ANSI standards efforts,

14, There Is some participation In professional activities,

15, An automatic flowcharter was Introduced about 10 years ago. Program design

language and preprocessors came into use about 5 years ago,

16, Design language, preprocessors and portability auditor are currently in use.
PAGE 38

17. A hierarchical design presentation was used on a major project. It became

too burdensome at the detailed level. A common complaint Is that more training

Is needed when tools are Introduced. This Is believed to be also responsible

for the poor reaction to early flowcharters.

18. An automated library system Is being considered for acquisition.

19. Using projects may authorize tools. Others are acquired Informally.

20. There Is no fixed policy on training.

Part 1 1

.

The key tool discussed at this Interview Is a FORTRAN preprocessor which was developed at this facility, (but not In this section) and Is In the public

domain. In addition to usual preprocessor functions. It audits control

structures and furnishes Indented listings. There Is no set-up time. The code

Is optimized for portability. Its own run-time and program run-time are at

present not optimized. The tool was developed to avoid being tied Into a proprietary product and to overcome limitations of some of the other

preprocessors.

All options are used. Recently automatic Invocation of the FORTRAN compiler has

been added as an option. The are no known bugs. Errors In Input syntax are not

always well diagnosed. However, the preprocessor Is preferred to the compiler

as a debugging tool. In the beginning personnel requirements went up ("People

are always hesitant to try something new"). The manual Is considered quite

good. A course Is given periodically and there Is also on-the-job training.
PAGE 39

TOOLS INTERVIEW #13

Part I

1. The Interview was conducted at the technology laboratory of the software

engineering division of a major defense contractor. The laboratory provides

methodologies, tools, and does research (IRD & funded).

2. There are about 500 programmers In the Division.

3. Users are armed forces (U. S. and allies). These usually Impose programming

and program development standards. However, see 8.

4. The normal entry requirement Is a bachelor’s degree In Computer Science or a related field. About 3^ have Ph. D.s, many have MS. About 10$ are In

programming support positions, and these do not need to have a degree.

5. About 50$ of the work Is done on commercial minicomputers. The other 50$ Is on military host machines. There Is also a mainframe that Is used exclusively

by the laboratory.

6. No outside services are utilized.

7. The languages used are JOVIAL, CMS-2, and some FORTRAN.

8. In-house standards (developed by the laboratory) are formal and strict.

They are Intended to supplant the customer desired standards wherever possible.

The company will convince the customer that In-house standards will do

everything the customer’s standard requires, and then some. If customer does

not agree, customer standards are accepted but the cost may go up.

9. Teams are usually 4-6 programmers. Most work on Interactive terminals.

For programming of military hosts, batch and RJE are utilized.

10. Review for accuracy of simulations and for adherence to standards Is done

by a central organization. Other aspects of QA are done at the project level.

11. Documentation requirements are usually defined by the customer. Typically

they Include a systems manual, user and maintenance manuals, the source code,

and test plans and procedures. Configuration Control and Requirements

documentation are also frequently supplied.

12. Prior to delivery, corrective changes are made on the basis of trouble

reports, and adaptive changes on the basis of change requests. After delivery,

changes are made only as authorized by the contract.

13. They participate In standards efforts.

14 . They participate In many professional activities.
PAGE 40

15. The first tools were simulators. Three of these were locally developed for

military computers.

16. Many tools are In use, but there Is no formal tools catalog. A large

requirements analyzer Is being used by some projects.

17. A flowcharter for use with a specific assembly language was discarded as being too difficult to use.

18. Tools for automatic verification of flight software are being developed

under a government sponsored effort. An employee of the laboratory works on an Improved requirements analyzer as part of a Ph. D. program. There Is also

Interest In discrete events simulations for systems Including computers.

19. The laboratory director decides on tools acquisitions.

20. A seminar Is held every two weeks to which all professional personnel are

Invited. New tools are announced and discussed there. Another Interesting

method Is to 'piggy-back* new tools on existing ones. Recently a testabllty

tool (see Part II) was Introduced by being made part of a structured design

tool

.

Part 1

1

This part Is completed for two tools: a testability analyzer and a requirements

analyzer.

A. Testability Analyzer.

This key tool was developed In-house with company funds and Is still In the

experimental stage. It quantifies testability of a program and predicts the

amount of effort required for test. Three projects are now using the tool.

Management directs use of the tool because the Individual programmer Is during

design not motivated to think about testability. Test accounts for 60% of the

development cost, and the tool Is expected to reduce the cost of test. Design

errors account for 70^ of all errors, and the tool may also reduce the Incidence

of these. The tool Is Integrated with In-house developed structured design

tools. It was developed because no other tool was adaptable to this

environment.

Set-up time Is negligible. The tool resides on disk. Run time Is seconds.

When a complete test plan Is generated It may run for 1 - 2 minutes. The tool

structure Is fairly simple. There are not many options, and all of these are

used. A draft of a users manual Is available on-line. No formal training was

provided. Because the user Interface Is Identical to that on the existing tool.

It was not considered necessary.

B. Requirements Analyzer

This tool Is an established major program that was acquired from an outside

source. It took two weeks to rehost the system. No specific data on run-time
PAGE 41

could be obtained, but apparently this was a critical factor for some projects

which chose not to use It. Requirements are Input to the tool, and analysis for

consistency and completeness Is performed. In later stages, consistency of the

design with the requirements can also be verified. 8-10 projects have used It

since It became operative. This was done at their own Initiative, not as a result of customer requirements. Results generally regarded as good but It Is

expensive to use.

The tool does a complex job and Is Itself quite complex. It requires an expert

to operate It, and a specialized group has been established to act as an Interface between the developer and the tool. The services of this group are

paid for by the using projects. The general reaction of software developers to

the tool was described as "pepper and salt" - a mixture of good and bad. The

difficulty of use Is apparently the major drawback. The tool found missing

requirements and (less often) Inconsistent requirements.

Personnel requirements were Increased by the use of this tool. Documentation Is

regarded as excellent. Some personnel attended a workshop at the developer’s

fad I Ity.
PAGE 42

TOOLS INTERVIEW #14A

Part I

1. The Interview was held at a programming group that supports a specialized

engineering function of a large nationwide company.

2. The overall Information systems function has an annual budget of over $ 175

Million. This covers 15 major projects with between 20 and 250 employees per

project. In the programming group Interviewed there are currently 60 people,

3. The ultimate software users are regional subsidiaries of the company. There

Is no central guidance on software design or development.

4. The staff consists of 8 requirements analysts, 3 engineering & documentation

people who Interface with the users, and the rest are Involved in the actual

programming. Of the latter approximately 55$ are degreed personnel, the rest

typically have 2 yrs of college,

5. No on-sIte computers are utilized.

6. The entire work Is done on a commercial time-share system which facilitates

access to the programs by the regional users.

7. Current languages are FORTRAN and a structured FORTRAN. There Is

experimentation with PASCAL. All new work Is In structured FORTRAN.

8. Standards established within the department call for top-down design, design

reviews prior to coding, modular structures (but modules are fairly large),

structured FORTRAN, flowcharts or pseudocode,

9. Program teams consist of 2 - 3 people, typically one experienced and the

rest less experienced. All programming Is Interactive.

10. Two formal tests — Baseline (Integration test) and Certification (user

environment simulation) — are run by a separate test group In the department.

After this, the program Is turned over to a Release Control function in a separate group.

11. User documentation conforms to company practice. It Is prepared by the

software development organization and consists of a User Guide (top level).

System Functions and Output (a reference manual which Is more detailed), and a pocket card which identifies commands and output. Maintenance documentation Is

at the discretion of the developer. The present practice is to put all

documentation Into the file. Extensive header Information Is required, and the

department head reviews this.

12. All significant changes are coordinated In a formal manner. Involving

several functions outside this department. Minor changes can be made by the

developer directly.
PAGE 43

12A. The major problem Is software productivity (particularly In Implementing

user requested changes),

13. There is no participation in standards,

14. There Is no significant participation In profes^ . .„.al activities.

15. The first stand-alone tool used In the department Is a code analyzer and

cross-reference generator (see part II),

16. Another tool In use Is a rather minimal preprocessor. Performance

measurement Is obtained from the operating system.

17. A flowcharting tool made available through a user group Is not much used

18. No tools acquisitions are contemplated.

19. There Is no central authority for tools acquisition. Some tools have

become quasi-standards on a company-wide basis by default. The key tool

described below was developed on the basis of an economic analysis generated In the department.

20. Training Is left up to an Informal 'network’.

Part 1

1

The key tool discussed In this Interview Is a FORTRAN code analyzer and

cross-reference generator. It was developed In-house In 1979 and Is considered

proprietary. It performs static analysis and particularly Identifies usage of

FORTRAN Common. The tool showed that 70$ - 80$ of the FORTRAN Common was not

utilized by most programs. Since storage for Common Is always allocated, and

since the time-share charges are based on memory allocation, this permitted

considerable savings. The tool also serves as a general code auditor, primarily

In data set/use.

This was one of the few tools for which an economic analysis was available. In brief. If tool eliminates just 2 pages of memory from a typical program, this

will result In $10,000.- savings of per year. The program took approximately

5-1/2 man-month to develop. This translates Into a minimum of $ 20,000 and at

most $ 50,000 (depending on allocation of overhead). The department head saw this as a clear justification for tool development. He did not have to submit

this analysis to higher management. Actual savings are more than anticipated.

The tool resides on disk. Is always available, and cost of use Is negligible.

Usage has shown no problems. There Is no formal documentation on the tool at

present. On-the-job training Is being provided.
1

PAGE 44

TOOLS INTERVIEW #14B

Part I

The general software development environment for this Interview Is very similar

to that of Interview #14A. However, this group uses In-house computing

resources and makes use of a general software development system that Is

furnished a part of the operating system. The specific programming group

Includes 10 Individuals who are all *heavy' users of of the development system.

The most pressing software problem to the Interviewee was to get programmers to

think In terms of user needs. He expressed this as "to get software specialists

and psychologists together".

Part I I

The key tool for this Interview Is a software development systems that was

developed In-house In 1973, Program descriptions are In the public domain and are widely available. Versions for specific systems are being marketed by

specialty houses. The tool provides a standardized environment for software

development. This permits programmers to transition rapidly from one system to

another. The most frequent usage of the development system In this environment

Is for source code control. The group generates different versions of their

software for different users. The development system permits common or Individual changes to be made, provides comparisons (deltas) of different

versions, and performs library functions.

It Is In use almost constantly. Essentially no cost Is attributed to the tool.

The most used features are file management (merge, compare, change, etc,).

Documentation could be Improved. Reliability Is rated very good, and the tool

Is generally liked by programmers. The tool Incorporates a highly Integrated

environment. The output of one function can be passed on to another. No formal

training Is provided. Normal cooperation within the group provides training for

new personnel.
PAGE 45

TOOLS INTERVIEW #15

Part I

1. The Interview was conducted at the computer techv^kogy group of a government

agency. The questions are answered In terms of overall agency usage.

2. The 1980 ADP budget Is 82 million dollars.

3. The agency uses computers for both scientific and adminstrative functions.

4. Most programmers are not Computer Science majors. Skill levels range from

journeyman programmer to research scientist,

5. A central large mainframe Is used that can be accessed by about 1500

terminals (dumb and Intelligent) distributed all over the country.

6. Extensive use Is made of off-sIte services at universities and with

commercial time-share operations.

7. ANSI FORTRAN, ANSI COBOL and BASIC are the only currently authorized

languages. It Is Intended to add PAS(^L and data base query languages.

8. There Is a Systems Management Manual with policies and guidelines for the

software life cycle. An Automated Systems Development Handbook with detailed

examples and more specific guidelines Is In the draft stage. Formal training In structured programming Is being provided by a consulting firm.

9. Both Interactive and batch programming are used. Small programs are done by

Individuals, complex systems by groups of three to six.

10. QA for small systems Is performed by Individuals. For complex systems

there Is a central support group. There Is now an effort to acquire

verification tools, and a contract has been let to a university to evaluate

these.

11. Documentation Is governed by agency regulations.

12. Until recently, the most frequent mode of requesting a change was ’a scream

on the phone’. A new section has just been added to the Systems Management

Handbook on trouble reporting and change control procedures.

12A. Major problems are Incomplete requirements prior to development and

failure to make effective use of available software engineering tools.

13. There Is participation In government standards activities.

14. Members of the technology staff are active In professional societies.

Other programmers probably are not.

15. Flowcharters were used In the early 70 ’s but were dropped because they were
PAGE 46

difficult to use and because the charts they generated were not Informative.

Management tools were Introduced In 1975 and are still In use. Simulators were

used In the late 1960s.

16. A number of test analyzers, a sophisticated editor, a flow analysis tool

and several other tools are currently In use.

17. The flowcharter referred to In question 15.

18. Static and dynamic analyzers, a general software development tool, code

comparators, and cross-compilers are being considered.

19. The technology staff makes decisions on tools acquisition. Criteria

Include need, ease of use, resource requr lements, portability, documentation and

1 anguage.

20. New tools are Introduced through formal training, demonstrations, or notlfcatlon of availability together with associated documentation.

Part II

The key tool discussed In this Interview Is a COBOL dynamic analyzer. It was developed for the L). S. Government and was obtained from another agency. It Is

just now being Introduced here. The tool Is used for code optimization,

analysis of test, and debugging. Both compilation time and run time are

Increased when the tool Is used. Post-run reports furnish the number of

executions at each Instrumentation point and a summary of dwell time In each

segment.

A number of usage and report format options are available. It Is too early to

tell how many of these will be used. It was stated that the tool "still has a few bugs". Documentation Is considered quite good. No outside training was

utl 1 Ized.
PAGE 47

TOOLS INTERVIEW #16

Part I

1. The Interview was inducted at the programmi nn of a major Government

agency with primarily fiscal functions.

2. The programming staff Includes over 600 people. Approximately 200 of these

support Internal statistical and management functions, the rest deal with the

public functions of the agency.

3. The ultimate user for the public programs are the field offices of this

agency. The other organizations either are their own users or service

headquartes functions.

4. Senior programmers are all degreed, most In the computer or closely allied

fields. Other personnel range from trainees to experienced, some with degrees.

5. Several large mainframes are In use.

6. There Is no significant use of off-sIte services.

7. COBOL and assembly languages are used. There Is no current Interest In other languages.

8. There Is an In-house procedures manual which Is being updated and will be more strictly enforced.

9. Systems programming Is mostly batch, others mostly Interactive. Programming

Is done In groups. Size varies, usually not more than 10.

10. For programs that access the major data bases there are formal test steps.

These are now being automated (at least partly) by time sharing facility. It Is

a system built around a mainframe operating system with some resident commercial

tools. Mandatory pre-release testing Is only now being Instituted.

11. Responsibility for documentation Is always with the developer. Degree of

formality depends on the expected life of the programs.

12. Major program changes are usually the result of legislative actions. The

functional requirements are established by other offices In the agency. Their

requirements are forwarded to a coordinator who directs the programming groups

to make the required changes.

13. No participation In standards was evident.

14. There Is limited participation In professional activities, some In user

groups.

15.

There was no certain way of telling which was really the first tool. There

had been Interest In tools among various programming groups and commercial tools
PAGE 48

have been procured for several years. There Is now a 1 1 st of commercial tools

that are available on the In-house computers. There has also been some In-house

development. Including a library control system written In assembly. It

provides back-up transparent to the user, easily accessible audit trails, and Is

well adapted to this environment. It was started around 1972.

16. Many tools are In use, mostly commercial. They Include optimization,

analysis (static and dynamic), and management tools,

17. The library control system mentioned In [15]] Is now being replaced by a commercial system which has been adopted as the agency standard.

18. No comments on future tools procurement were offered.

19. Individual offices have In the past obtained commercial tools. Others were

developed as neded. There Is a tendency now for more centralized control,

20. A wide range of training techniques are In use: personnel sent to vendor.

In-house courses by vendor. In-house training by agency personnel, video

casettes obtained from vendor.

Part 1

1

The key tool discussed In this Interview Is a COBOL dynamic analysis tool that

Is primarily used for optimization. It Is licensed from the commercial

developer. The typical use Is to correct Inefficiencies In the COBOL compilers.

Use of the tool achieves 30$ reduction In storage and 10 - 15$ reduction In run time. Most agency activities are presently computer bound so that run time

reductions are very Important. An option permits enforcement of structure

standards. These standards are not agency-wide at present.

It Is In use dally. Usage Is mandatory for some programs (by Internal

directives). Frequently programmers are motivated to use It on their own. Although no formal analysis was available. It could be shown that the tool

easily pays for Itself In the context of the large amount of COBOL code

generated here.

At present the tool does not handle re-entrant code. This restriction and also

limitations on operating systems should be removed. Reliability Is considered

adequate to good. Some tool functions duplicate features of the operating

system and these are seldom used. User manuals received mixed ratings from

several Individuals Interviewed, Training at the developer and at the agency

(with video casettes) Is being used.
PAGE 49

TOOLS INTERVIEW #17

Part I

1. This Interview conducted at one programminp center of a major computer

manufacturer. The depan-ment described below workb primarily on Government

contracts.

2. The current budget for this department Is about $ 8 Million. This supports

58 programmers and 2 program librarians. Computer operations are separately

funded.

3. The end user Is In most cases a U. S. defense agency. Programming standards

are usually specified by reference to military specifications.

4. Most of the programmers have degrees. Only two have less than two years of

experience. Most of the others have seven or more years of experience.

5. A large commercial mainframe and some special purpose computers are In use.

6. There Is no use of off-sIte facilities.

7. The languages In use are JOVIAL, FORTRAN and assembly. The latter violates

customer specifications but Is necessitated by performance constraints of the

present computer. When a replacement Is obtained, more HOL will be used. ADA

Is not currently being considered.

8. Frequently the actual governing standards are Internal corporate ones which

are equivalent to, or stricter than, the contractally specified ones.

Structured code Is used for all new work.

9. Both batch and Interactive programming are used. Code Is Intended to be run

In a batch environment. Programming groups vary In size. Library function Is

central I zed.

10. Quality Control Is an outside function (not part of this department).

11. Documentation Is done by the person writing the code.

12. Changes are usually made by the developer. The department delivers

sections that are affected by the change to the customer who assumes

responsibility for configuration control.

12A. The principal problem faced by the department head Is shortage of

personnel, and unavailability of personnel with the right background. He Isdso

concerned that the older, more experienced programmers tend to lose touch with

the advancement In the Industry and are unaware of current technology.

13. The company has strong Internal standards efforts and participates In

Industry wide standardization. The particular group Is not directly Involved In these.
PAGE 50

14, They are much aware of professional activities In software engineering.

15, A software development system was developed In-house to solve a specific

problem In 1975.

16, An In-house version of Program Design Language has been developed recently

and and Integrated with the development system,

17, There was no recollection of tools that had been abandoned.

18, A task force has been established In the division to consider additional

software tools. It has not yet made specific recommendations.

19, Anyone can make recommendations to the task force. Decisions are made In a diffuse manner. Customer requirements figure heavily In tool selection.

20, New tools are Introduced through lectures or seminars, usually from 2 to 4

hours In duration. This should expose the programmer to the main features, and

he can then acquire the additional Information from documents.

Part 1

The key tool discussed In this Interview Is the software development system. It was generated In-house In 1975 and has since been delivered to the U, S.

government. The purpose was to provide a development environment for structured

code (Including use of assembly language) and top down design which will support

maintenance of the code (changes) throughout the development period. This Is

still the primary use of the tool. The output listing Is structured and

contains easily understood diagnostics. The tool Is used throughout the

development phase for ail programs In the department.

The tool has Increased programmer productivity and Improved reliability and

maintainability of the product. No cost/benefit trade-off was performed. The

need was sufficiently great to Indicate the development. All features of the

tool are being used, and a number of enhancements are under development. The

syntax of the tool Is not consistent with current standards. Correction of this

problem Is under consideration. The tool Is always available and has been for

the past five years. It Is reliable. Maintenance has not been a problem;

changes are carefully controlled. Changes are made only in response to an approved, numbered request. In Its present form the tool Is not suitable for

Integration Into a coordinated environment,

A User’s Manual exists and has been found helpful. No special training Is being

provided. The manual Is adequate.
PAGE 51

TOOLS INTERVIEW #18A

Part I

1. The Interview was conducted at one of several departments that develop

software of a governm;^r.Y“SUpport organization primar’’” Involved with military

contracts,

2. The department has 40 engineers and scientists.

3. The programs are used within the government-support organization, primarily

by project offices.

4. All staff members are college graduates. About 60% have an advanced degree

and 50% are Ph, D.s.

5. A large mainframe Is specifically assigned to this department, and several

other mainframes are available within the organization.

6. Outside computing Is rarely utilized.

7. About 90^ of programming Is In FORTRAN, the rest In APL. PASCAL and PL/

1

are supported but not used at present.

8. For two major projects there are departmental standards. For all other work

the Individual programmer selects the standards.

9. Both Interactive and batch programming are used. Both of the major projects

use groups of 4 - 5 programmers. All other programming Is done by Indvlduals or teams of two,

10. There Is no formal QA organization but testing of the updates of major

programs Is formal. Specific test decks are being maintained for this purpose.

11. Documentation Is being done by the programming groups. In some cases the

user objects to the cost of documentation, and the commented source code Is then

al I that Is del Ivered.

12. Changes to the major programs are Initiated by a supervisor. All other

programs are managed by the Indlvdual responsible for them,

12A. The major problem Is documentation, particularly the Identification of

changes.

13. This department does not participate In standards activities,

14. The department manager Is aware of software engineering activities but does

not know whether personnel participate In these.

15. A file manager that came with the operating system of a then new mainframe

In the early 1970s was the first tool In use by this department.
PAGE 52

16. The file manager and a cross-reference generator are In use at present.

17. No tools have been abandoned.

18. There are no Immediate plans for tools acquisitions.

19. The supervisor In charge of the central computing facility decides on tools

procurement.

20. The availability of a tool Is announced, a presentation Is scheduled, and

documentation Is made available.

Part II

The key tool discussed at this Interview Is a file manager. It Is a proprietary

product of the computer manufacturer and Is leased as part of the operating

system. It was originally Intended for maintenance of the operating system but was soon adopted for management of program files and Is now used also for text

files. The tool Is available by Invocation from terminals or at batch

submission. The run-time penalty Is negligible. The tool Is used to change

programs and to keep an audit trail of the changes. It can also be used for

configuration control. Diagnostics are self-explanatory.

A I I features are used but It Is estimated that 90% of the use Involves only \ 0%

of the features. The most frequently used are Insert and delete functions.

Some enhancements are desired. Including automatic dating of changes and the

ability to change Individual characters. Reliability Is good, and maintenance

Is done by the vendor. The manual supplied with the tool Is helpful but also

contains much useless Information. The tool Is regarded as very Important, and

newcomers to this environment are Introduced to It by experienced personnel as soon as possible.
PAGE 53

TOOLS INTERVIEW #18B

Part I

1. This Interview was conducted at another department of the same

government-support organization. This department e-rir^haslzes programming rather

than scientific orientation.

2. 15 programmers are employed In this department.

3. Software users state functional requirements. The department establishes

design rules and standards

4. All programmers have at least a BS degree. Most have advanced degrees.

Including several Ph. D.s

5. Six large mainframes In the central computing facility are used.

6. No outside computing services are used.

7. Programming Is 90^ In FORTRAN, the remainder assembly.

8. Software design requirements are established by the department. They are

"semi -documented"

9. Programming Is on-line or batch, by Individuals or In small groups.

10. QA procedures have been formulated by the department and are enforced on all

updates.

11. The programmer Is responsible for documenting his own work to department

standards.

12. Wherever possible, the developer performs maintenance. The user

participates In configuration control (not all changes made are accepted for

opratlonal programs).

12A. Lack of personnel with experience In this type of software development is

regarded as the major problem.

13. Personnel are not active in standards

14. Personnel attend conferences and are aware of software engineering

I Iterature.

15. Some (assembly language) tools were developed In the early 1960's

(de-buggers, etc.). These were later re-coded In higher order languages. It Is

not believed that any of these were ever ’exported'.

16. Many tools are available but general purpose tools are not extensively used

by the department. A flowchart program Is occasional ly used. PDL and PSL/PSA
PAGE 54

are available but are not In current use. Code comparators, a specialized

management tool, and simulations are used.

17. A simulation tool was abandoned because better tools of equivalent

capability became available.

18. No new tools are being considered.

19. The emphasis Is on special purpose tools that will be developed In-house,

The criterion for tools development Is a clearly perceived problem.

20,

New tools are Introduced by on-the-Job training, documentation and

lectures.

Part II

The key tool discussed In this Interview Is large simulation program that was developed In-house In 1967 and has been ported to several other organizations.

The tool Is In the public domain. It was developed because set-up and operation

of prior simulations was very time-consuming and required very senior personnel.

This tool Includes a front-end processor which permits the engineers to specify

a problem In their own terms. The tool can be applied to any problem that can

be structured as a system of differential equations. It finds an optimum

solution for whatever cost factors are Identified,

The effort to develop and maintain the tool over the past 13 years Is estimated

at between 55 and 60 man-years. Set-up can vary from a few hours to several

weeks. Run time on a large mainframe ranges from seconds to 10 hours. Analysis

of the output Is required.

Because this Is a tool of very broad scope It Is not believed that all features

are used. The tool has been In use 13 years and It Is now rated very reliable.

Ease of maintenance was a design consideration. The program Is documented In a set of five volumes. Two training programs are periodically conducted. One Is

for users (engineers); the other one Is for newly assigned progr'ammers who will

work on the tool

,
PAGE 55

TOOLS INTERVIEW #19

Part I

1. This Interview was conducted at a central software facility of a major

defense contractor.

2. Approximately 400 full-time professional programmers are employed.

3. The organization develops systems for use by agencies of the U. S.

Government. Usual ly the customer Imposes standards but these may be less

demanding than company Imposed standards.

4. Most programmers are degreed. Experience ranges from one to twenty years.

5. Four large mainframes (three different manufacturers) and a large number of

minicomputers are In use. The mainframes can be accessed In batch or

Interactive modes.

6. A very large mainframe at another facility of the same company can be

accessed In time-share mode.

7. Most commonly used are FORTRAN, structured FORTRAN, and a local FORTRAN

dialect. COBOL Is used for administrative programming. PASCAL and PL/1 are

available but seldom used. JOVIAL Is currently not much used but may become a major language If a current proposal Is accepted. Assembly languages are also

used.

8. They always work from formal requirements. After receipt of an approved

requirement, a Users Manual Is generated for the product which Is to be

delivered. After this manual has been approved by the customer, a detailed

specification Is generated. Reviews and updates are also handled quite

formal ly. Research projects are exempted from these procedures.

9. Programming environments are created to suit the needs of specific projects.

Practically all programming Is done at programming stations (on-line). The

chief programmer team concept does not seem to work here, partly because the

chief becomes too dominant, and partly because communications bog down when the

chief Is absent. The present favorite group Is a two person team, operating In a single office with a blackboard and two terminals. One of the members Is an experienced programmer, the other not necessarily so.

10. There are formal, separate, organizations for Quality Assurance and

Configuration Control. They are not part of the software organization. They

also do all system level testing and Integration.

11. Documentation Is the responsibility of everyone who works on a project.

Documents are formal and usually In a format specified by the customer.
12, PAGE 56

Maintenance Is sometimes performed by the programmers who developed a program. But there Is also an Internal software maintenance organization who

upgrades previously Issued software. Their functions are governed by the same standards that apply to development,

12A, The main problem Is communication among participants In a given project.

Another Important problem Is training employees In structured thinking and

logic.

13. They are actively Involved In professional standards activities,

14, There Is a high level of Involvement In software engineering activities.

15, During 1975 they recognized the need for a test coverage analyzer. They

developed a tool that was Integrated with a pre-compiler,

16. A general software development tool, a hierarchical design language, data

bases managers, editors, and several special languages are In use,

17, No tool has been discarded. Tools usually evolve Into updated products.

18. A software requirements analysis package Is being considered. The decision

to acquire It has not yet been made.

19. The Senior Scientist In charge of software technology makes most decisions

on tool acquisition. The decisions are based on need, cost, and availability,

20, The Introduction of new tools Is usually handled very Informally. As a minimum, the programmers are given a Users Manual.

Part 1

The key tool discussed In this Interview Is a hierarchical design language. It

was developed In-house In 1977 and has never been delivered as a product (hence

Is considered proprietary). The original purpose of the tool was to facilitate

communications In the design team environment. It Is still being used for this

purpose throughout the development and design phases. The original development

took about one man-year. The current Investment Is about six man-years.

Programmer productivity has significantly Improved through use of the tool and

software reliability has Increased. On one project It had been estimated that

each programmer would produce 75 lines of code per month. The actual turned out

to be 178 lines. At the end of this project only two design errors and one programming error were discovered.

Set-up Is negligible, and run time depends on size of job. Tool resource

utilization Is not a problem. It Is used once or twice a day by each team

member, typically In the morning to get a fresh plot for the day. The tool has

no options. The tool Is being modified to provide for more front-end processing

and for more structured programming. Only one reliability problem has been

reported since the tool has been put Into use. Availability Is excellent.

Maintenance Is being performed In-house,
PAGE 57

The tool Is a candidate for Integration with a general software development

tool. A User’s Manual was produced but is considered to be marginal. It should

be redone. Special training of about one hour Is provided for new users.
PAGE 58

TOOLS INTERVIEW #20

Part I

1. This Interview was conducted at one of several programming departments of a Government agency In the defense sector.

2. The closed shop operation Involves 60 programmers and analysts. There are also open shop programmers.

3. Most programs are used on-sIte, but portability Is a requirement and Is

usually provided. There are no substantial outside Imposed requirements.

4. The programmers are mostly trained In the applications area served by the

programs and have little computer science background. The agency insists on the

general background so that people can be readily transferred.

5. Two large mainframes are available for In-house processing.

6. Several specialty mainframes are accessed thorugh the ARPAnet.

7. FORTRAN and some COBOL are used. No other languages are expected In the

Immediate future.

8. There are no formal software development standards, either external or

I nternal

,

9. Programming Is done In batch mode, usually In small groups (2-3 people)

10. There Is no formal QA. When the program has been checked out by the

developing group, a readiness letter Is Issued. It Is then gradually

transitioned to the user environment, and when they are satisfied an acceptance

letter Is Issued.

11. User Manuals are always prepared. On most programs there Is maintenance

documentation. They are now Introducing standard header formats.

12. Changes are originated by memo from the user, are Implemented by the

developer.

12A. The biggest software problem Is the code maintenance due to changing

requ I rements

13. There Is no participation In standards efforts.

14. Emphasis Is on on-sIte education In software engineering. One person per

year Is sent to a graduate school that offers software engineering courses.

15. An editor was Introduced around 1970, and a FORTRAN preprocessor was

Introduced In 1974. Both were of limited use.
PAGE 59

16. Several tools developed at the university that furnishes the graduate

program are In use (file editor, file scanner, file lister, text editor, tape

dump). Also a local program for Inserting compiler calls, a checksum program

developed by another government agency, and a test analyzer. It Is felt that

they are limited on the tools that they can apply because the mainframes used

here are not the most popular type,

17. A structured pre-processor developed by a government agency was abandoned

(no documentation available).

18. It Is expected that further test tools will be acquired.

19. All decisions about tools procurement are made by headquarters In

Washington,

20. Small tools are announced In a local newsletter and documentation Is

furnished. Formal training Is used when needed.

Part II

The key tool discussed In this Interview Is a test analyzer for FORTRAN programs

which was developed for this agency by a private company under contract to

another Government organization. The first Installation was completed In 1977

but did not handle all language forms In use at this facility. The revised

version was completed In 1980 and operates on the desired FORTRAN dialects. The

tool Is owned by the Government but must at present be maintained by the

developer. The arrangements for tools acquisition were made In Washington with

little Involvement of the users (In addition to the facility visited, there Is

at least one additional user of the tool In similar circumstances). One

motivation for use of the tool was to help In transitioning to structured code.

Static analysis runs are made to check out structure. This feature Is

considered useful. It furnishes a clean structure chart. Index to all calls and

read statements, and thus helps to generate well structured code, A typical

static analysis run takes 10 minutes. The tool Is presently used about 10 times

per month In this manner. Dynamic analysis Is not yet completely operational

but uses considerably more computer resources.

This Is a very large and comprehensive tool with many options, only a few of

which are used at present. It Includes restructuring capability which was

stated to account for much of the code and will not be used In this environment.

In general, the tool Is perceived by the user as too large and complex.

The probe routine does not run at present, and this precludes use of the dynamic

analysis feature. There are unresolved Inconsistencies between the two FORTRAN

dialects that are being supported. The tool Is at present not maintainable by

the user.

Personnel requirements are Increased Initially. They may be reduced over the

long run because program maintenance may be simpler. User Manuals were

furnished. There are at present no maintenance manuals. There have been

several training classes given by the developer.
PAGE 60

TOOLS INTERVIEW #21

Part I

1. This Interview was conducted at the national data processing center of a Federal agency.

2. The programming organizations consists of:

On-line systems, about 30 programmers

Conversions and systems design, about 50 progr.

Batch programs, about 30 programmers

Systems Techniques Branch, about 30 programmers

3. Most programs are used In-house. The on-line programs service nationwide

centers.

4. There are a number of GS7 - 9 trainees with very little background or schooling. Most senior analysts have degrees. Typical lead programmers have

some col lege and 3-5 years experience. They are well versed In COBOL and JCL.

5. There are four mainframe computers from two manufacturers.

6. They have a time-share arrangement with the local utility for access to a mainframe Identical to one of the In-house models for emergency use.

7. COBOL (2 dialects) and assembly are the principal languages.

8. Software development Is mostly governed by In-house standards (try to adhere

to structured programming, top-down development). Languages are prescribed by

Washington headquarters.

9. Mostly programming Is on-line ( 90%), some batch. Programming teams of 3 - 4

people are typical ly used.

10. There Is an audit staff reporting to the Washington headquarters. The

output (of programs) Is screened by a Control Section. Both of these functions

are concerned with fiscal Integrity rather than software characteristics.

11. Computer Programming Manuals (CPMs) are on-line. There are formal project

write-ups and Computer Change Plans. Maintenance Is mostly from flowcharts.

12. Most changes originate In Washington. The computing center generates the

Computer Change Plan to Implement them.

12A: Major problems (from Head of Division): Shortage of staff (partly due to

hiring freeze, partly due to lack of applicants with adequate skills); poorly

formulated requirements being furnished to the Center which puts an additional

burden on the Senior Analysts for clarifying them; better project management

reports.
PAGE 61

13. There Is no participation In standards activities,

14. There Is little parti cl at I on In software engineering activities.

15. A library tool was Installed In 1974 but Is no longer In use because the

programs serviced by It are now on another computer that Is not compatible with

the too I

,

16. Currently used tools Include a COBOL optimization program, a hardware

utilization analyzer, a sort program and some computer utilization aids.

17. A debug package was abandoned when a better one became available on a new

operating system.

18. A new library tool Is being acquired.

19. The center can make recommendations but final approval for tools

acquisition must be obtained from Washington headquarters,

20. Tools are typically procured by headquarters and are tried out on small

development programs. Training Is done In-house or by the vendors.

Part 1

1

The key tool discussed In this Interview Is a hardware utilization analyzer.

The tool Is leased from the developer. This program summarizes and formats

utilization data accumulated by the operating system. The tool Is used once a day, and a run takes several minutes. The tool furnishes a number of reports on equipment usage, only some of which are printed out while others are being

archived on microfiche. Because of the heavy load on the computers the group

operating the tool would like to use It for tuning of programs but time

divisions captured by this tool are not sufficiently fine to be effective for

tuning. The head of the division was well aware that the tool was not suitable

for tuning but placed heavy reliance on the reports furnished by It to show the

average level of operation, and particularly that "no catastrophes had

occurred".

The tool Is reliable and well Integrated with the operating system of the

computers serviced by It, Finer time divisions would make It suitable for

tuning, but this function may be better accomplished by special tuning aids.

Some accounting functions of the tool duplicate Information furnished by the

operating system but the tool prints them out In a more systematic manner. A

User Manual Is furnished and Is rated fair. No special training was provided

with this too I

.
PAGE 62

TOOLS INTERVIEW #22

Part I

1. This Interview was conducted at one of many programming groups at a government-support laboratory. The specific group Is a service organization

supporting the research groups at the laboratory,

2. There are twelve people who work on both hardware and software plus the

equivalent of 4 full time contractor personnel who work software only. The

software effort amounts to about 12 people,

3. Most of the software Is used by the operators of major test facilities at

the laboratory. Users are not very sophisticated In programming and don't

Impose requirements,

4. Most staff are degreed (EE); contractor personnel are computer scientists

with 4 - 5 years experience,

5. Most of the software Is developed on and targeted for minicomputers,

6. No off-sIte equipment utilized. There Is a central computing facility at

the laboratory which they sometimes use for cross-assembly.

7. The languages are mostly FORTRAN IV and ANSI FORTRAN. There Is emphasis on making the central part of the program very portable, ISA Standards S61.1 and

S61 .2 are used for calls. A structured FORTRAN pre-processor Is used. There Is Interest In PASCAL, and an In-house course has been taught. The Interface with

external routines Is a problem.

8. Programming standards are Informal. Modular structure (single page modules)

and structured programming are In use.

9. All programming Is done on-line. Small programs are done as Individual

efforts, larger ones In a group headed by a Project Engineer, who has

responsibility for hardware and software.

10. Team leaders are responsible for testing. There Is no other QA, Testing

Is done top-down and bottom-up,

11. Documentation Is done by programmers. User’s Guide Is standard. On larger

programs there may also be a Programmer's Guide, Average program life Is 4 - 5

years.

12. Changes are usually originated by a phone call to the Project Engineer.

Versions are Identified In the header.

13. Tere Is no part Id at I on In standards activities,

14. Most personnel participate In functional professional activities but there

Is Increasing Interest In software engineering meetings.
PAGE 63

15. In 1966 they produced a cross-assembler. In 1968 a cross-ref erence

generator

.

16. A FORTRAN preprocessor, text editors, and debug aides are currently used.

17. The cross-assemb I er was abandoned because one now available from the

computer manuf acturer

.

18. A performance measurement system for the most frequently used minicomputer

will be acquired.

19. The group leader makes the decisions on tools acquisition.

20. Tools introduction is by manuals only. Tools should be easy to use and not

require special training.

Part I I

The key tool discussed at this interview is a structured FORTRAN preprocessor

which was developed at a government agency and is in the public domain. It has

Macro capability, furnishes indented listings, and can handle some special

constructs. It is a very fast pre-processor , with practically no compile

penalty. There Is some run-time penalty because the code Is less efficient than

native FORTRAN. About one-third of the programmers use it now. The greatest

benefit is felt to be the neatly indented listing of the source.

A1 I features of the tool are used. A bothersome weakness is that the FORTRAN

code Is 'not readable' and can not be easily reconciled with the source. Also,

the tool does not at present permit INCLUDE statements. This latter feature Is being added locally. Reliability Is good. Maintenance is a problem because the

FORTRAN listing in which the preprocessor is furnished is difficult to

understand. This group would like to see an Integrated tools package. Ideally

from program definition through test.

The User's Manual furnished with the tool is rated as fairly useful. There was

no special training required to use the tool.
PAGE 64

TOOLS INTERVIEW #23

Part I

1. This Interview was conducted at the software division of a Government

organization In the defense sector.

2. Approximately 300 programmers are controlled by this division (most are contractor personnel accessing the facility from remote terminals). About

12,000 computer runs were processed by the facility In 1979.

3. The ultimate user Is the military service. The division acts as the

procurement agency for the user. User establishes functional requirements, and

the division establishes quality requirements. In most cases the detailed

requirements are generated by the developer. In recent procurements these

adhere to Ml L-STD-1679.

4. Programming trainees comprise about 20^ to 30% of the personnel, and the

upper 5% to lOf are highest level computer professionals. The rest are

Journeyman programmers. The In-house staff Is mostly degreed, about one-hal

f

have an M.S. In a computer related field.

5. The central computer complex Includes 5 very large mainframes, all of the

same manufacture. There Is also one midrange computer and a number of smaller

machl nes.

6. No outside computing resources are utilized.

7. The target software Is, mostly In CMS-2M, CMS-2Y, and SPL.

8. The computing facility permits auditing for specific software quality

requirements and also supports configuration control.

9. Interactive and batch submittals are used. The composition of development

teams was not known because these are located off-sIte.

10. QA Is performed within the development function.

11. Documentation of target software Is handled by the developer.

12. There Is considerable Involvement of the end user In changes. If possible,

these are accomplished as scheduled updates.

12A. Major software problems arise In requirements and design,

13. The organization participated In formulation of Ml L-STD-1679, There Is no Involvement In non-mil I tary standards.

14. There Is participation In professional activities. Several papers on the

facility have been presented.
PAGE 65

15. An early, but not necessarily first tools acquisition was a test analyzer

procured In 1975 and now Incorporated In the facility.

16. Current tools Include the test analyzer for FORTRAN and SPL/1, several

library systems, simulators, emulators, and utility packages.

17. An early Very High Level Language was abandnr,«d because It was not well

documented, did not yield consistent results, and had "lots of hidden little

things".

18. A requirements analyzer will be acquired. Two competitive products are

under consideration.

19. The superintendent decides on tools procurement. For the requirements

analyzer procurement a formal evaluation criteria document has been generated

and a benchmark has been selected. Tools cost Is absorbed In the organzat I ona I budget.

20. Tools are 'advertised* to users, demonstrations are held and the users are

encouraged to try the tools.

Part II

The key tool discussed In this Interview Is the test analyzer which was

commissioned about 1975. The tool Is government property. It Is now being

maintained by a contractor (not the developer). It Is used for both static and

dynamic analysis. Set-up time has been minimized by eliminating most options so that It can be Invoked with Just two control cards. The tool Is not available

for Interactive use but can be run by RJE. The end user pays for run time on computer so that the tool usage Is at no (or very little) cost to the developer.

The target computer Is simulated I nterpretively while this tool Is being used.

This normally causes a further considerable run-time expansion but It Is made

tolerable here by the very high computing performance of the host computer. On

a recent major project the analyzer was used to obtain test coverage of 80^ -

9056.

Reliability Is now acceptable. There were some Initial problems. The tool

handles now two languages and others can be added. The nature of the analysis

Implies some language dependency. The tool makes use of the Integrated data

base being maintained at the computer facility. Test data sets can be Input from

the data base, and test reports are output to the data base.

Documentation gradually evolved as the tool was being used and modified. Current

documentation Is believed to be useful and adequate. No special training was

furnished. The computer facility personnel were familiar with this type of

tool

There Is a hierarchy of user documentation on the overall facility which might

well be a model for the types of manuals required for an Integrated software

tools system;
PAGE 66

General Facility Brochure - Introduction to capabilities

Management Summary ~ benefits to program management

Production and Maintenance Methodology - Identifies use In day-to-day

tasks, directed at engineers and programmers

Handbook - a concise ’’how to" manual

Facility User Manuals - detailed description of commands and special

features (organized by target computers).
PAGE 67

TOOLS INTERVIEW #24

Part I

1. The organization volunteered to supply data for the tools survey In the form

of written responses to the Interview questionnaire. The Information Is

furnished for the software section of a specialty computer manufacturer.

2. 130 programmers and analysts are employed In the software function.

3. Embedded software Is sold as part of the product to the user. The user does

not Impose standards; In-house requirements are Implied.

4. The staff ranges from beginners to highly skilled and experienced computer

scientists.

5. Software Is being developed on the target mini- and midsize-computers.

6. No outside facilities are utilized.

7. Present languages are FORTRAN ( 60%) and assembly ( 20%), PASCAL and Ada are

being considered for the future.

8. At present the format and content vary considerably from product to product.

Some standards are In use for naming of variables and for header formats. The

company Is moving toward greater uniformity with each new software development

effort. Written requirements will In the future be mandatory. Formal reviews

and configuration control are also being Instituted.

9. Most programming Is done by Individuals or small groups (fewer than 3).

Ocaslonal ly up to 6 people may be Involved In an effort. Most code Is first put

on coding sheets and then keyed In by programmer aides, using a terminal.

Programs are compiled and executed In batch mode,

10. A software QC function has been established but currently operates on an ad

hoc basis. The larger of two programming organizations has formal acceptance

groups. The other one has Identified a QA function In a recent document.

11. Documentation Is the responsibility of the Individual program managers and

usually depends on the contractual requirement. A basic set of company wide

documentation standards Is planned.

12. There are "standard” products which are supported by the company and for

these there Is an established problem reporting and update procedure. For

custom products the customer usually assumes responsibility once they are

accepted,

12A. Major software problems; Configuration control (during development),

maintenance difficulties. Inaccurate estimates.

13. Participates In software standards (recent)
PAGE 68

14. At least two, and probably not more than six people keep abreast of current

literature and attend at least one meeting a year.

15. A set of dynamic analysis tools have been acquired but are not yet In use,

16. An Internally developed tool Is In use for allocating Global Common In

large simulation programs. This tool also Inserts comments describing the

variables. An Interactive symbolic debugging tool Is also In use.

17. No tools have been abandoned,

18. A general software development tool Is under consideration,

19. Tool procurement Is decided on by the manager of software development. The

prime criterion Is projected cost savings,

20. Tools are Introduced through documentation and Informal training. Training

will probably be formalized as more tools are being used.

No part II was furnished by this organization.
PAGE 69

TOOLS INTERVIEW #25

Part I

1, The organization volunteered to participate In +he tools survey and supplied

the Inforamtion by phone. It Isa software group at the corporate research

center of a heavy Industry company,

2, Staff at this facility comprises 7 programmers and analysts. The procedures

used here are unique and not representative of company wide programming

practices,

3, Research and special projects are handled. At some occasions this has

Involved safety-critical software for nuclear plants. Standards are generally

sel f- Imposed,

4, Lowest skill level; Associate In Computer Science, fresh out of school;

highest; advanced degrees plus 10 years experience,

5, On-sIte equipment Includes two minicomputers,

6, Two large mainframes are accessed via tie-llnes,

7, FORTRAN and structured FORTRAN are the primary languages. Looking at Ada

for the future,

8, Top-down structured design and programming are being Introduced, The test

bed for exercising safety-critical software was done In this manner,

9, Both Individual programming and small teams are utilized. Most programming

Is Interactive,

10, The conduct of QC Is Informal (can be assigned to any Individual); however,

reports on QC are usual ly Issued,

11, Design reports and QC reports are Issued, These are considered adequate.

As an example It was cited that one program had not been used for two years and was then successfully modified for a new application,

12, There are formal procedures for software changes,

12A, Definition of requirements Is seen as the most urgent problem,

13, There Is participation In standards activities

14, There Is particpatlon In software engineering activities,

15, A Structured FORTRAN preprocessor has been In use for several years and Is

liked. It facilitates forward and backward tracing between structured code and

FORTRAN,
PAGE 70

16, A number of requirements and library procedures are now Implemented

manually to get familiar with them prior to committing to a tool.

17, One requirements analyzer was tried and given up as too complex

18, Tools for management of the development process will be acquired.

19, The supervisor of the development staff selects tools for experimental use based on perceived needs. Committment to use Is made only after good results

from experimental use are established,

20, Initial selections are made from manuals and presentations at technical

meetings. For a small group, the effort to Install a tool Is formidable, and

therefore manual methods that duplicate what a tool will do are Justified to

determine the utility of the data.

No part 11 was obtained from this organization.
PAGE 71

TOOLS INTERVIEW #26

Part I

1. The organization volunteered Information for the tools survey. The

following responses were obtained by mall. They pertain to a regional office of

a software company.

2. Thirty programmers and analysts plus some support personnel are employed In

this office.

3. No answer provided.

4. Some employees are still working toward a bachelor degree, others are Ph.

D.s. One-half have advanced degrees.

5. A minicomputer Is utilized.

6. There Is no use of off-slte computers.

7. FORTRAN, structured FORTRAN, and a derivative of PL/1 are used.

8. Software requirements are generated In-house and are submitted to the

customer for approval.

9. Programming Is done by Individuals or In groups of up to five people. Both

on-line and batch are used.

10. No answer furnished.

11. Programmers are responsible for documentation. A standard outline Is

fol lowed. Sometimes comments are extracted for documentation.

12. Maintenance Is assigned to someone familiar with the project but not

necessarily the orglnal programmer.

12A. The most urgent problems are maintenance (of someone else*s programs) and

Incomplete requirements.

13. There Is no participation In standards activities.

14. They are aware of software engineering activities but are not Involved In

them.

15. The first tools usage Is not known.

16. At present a FORTRAN preprocessor, a portability auditor, and editing and

debugging tools are used.

17 - 19. No answers furnished.
1

PAGE 72

20. Tools are Introduced with the aid of documentation or from observing their

use.

Part I I

The key tool described by this organization Is a preprocessor for structured

FORTRAN which Is In the public domain. It Is used to promote structured coding,

and It Is stated that correct programs are generated In about one-half the time

that It would take without the use of this tool. Also, readability and

maintainability of the programs Is Improved and a beneficial effect on software

quality Is reported.

The tool Is reliable. No maintenance Is performed by this organization. Most

features are used. A desired option, not currently available. Is that comments

not be stripped and blanks deleted In the FORTRAN output. Integration Is

difficult because most tools don't operate on the structured source code used by

this preprocessor.

The User's Guide furnished with the tool was suitable. It Is believed that

deviations from 'standard' Installations need to be documented better. No

special training Is necessary for this tool.
PAGE Tr

SECTION 5

TOOLS CLASSIFICATION

The classification of key tools encountered In the rurvey Is presented In Table

5-1. The tools are arranged In Interview order. Where more than one key tool was described In an Interview, a dash number has been appended; the designation

thus formed Is consistent with that used for the Part II Interview synopses In

Section 4. The definition of the terms used In this classification Is given In [2].

TABLE 5 - 1 CLASSIFICATION OF KEY TOOLS

J.nt?rv

No.

iJ

Tool Control Transformation

Functions

Static

Analysis

Dynamic

Analysis

Outputs

User Mach I ne

1-1 Data Format I ng Cost Estim.

Management

Schedul I ng

Graphic

Tables

Data

1-2 Code Translation Graphic

Listing

Tables

2 Code Command Editing

Restructrg,

Management

Scanning

Listing

Text

OCode

SCode

3 Data Command Editing

Formating

Management

Scanning

Text Data

4A-1 Data Command Simulation Text Data

4A-2 Text Editing

Formatl ng

LI sti ng

5 Code Command Translation Listing OCode

6 Code Command Editing

Translation

Management

Scanning

Tracing DIagnst

Listing

Text

OCode

SCode

7 Code Auditing

Management

Scanning

Struct, Chk

Tracing Listing

Text

SCode

OCode = Object Code SCode = Source Code
PAGE 74

Interv

No.

lnp.y-t.g.

Tool Control Transformation

Functions

Static

Analysis

Dynamic

Analysis

Outputs

User Mach I ne

8 Data Command Management

Resrc.Est.

Resrc.UtI 1

.

DIagnst

Text

Data

9 Code Restructrg. Audit

Scanning

DIagnst

Listing

SCode

10B Data Comparison Cover. Anal

.

Timing

Tuning

Graphic

Text

Data

11A Data Command Simulation Text Data

11B Command Translation DIagnst

Listing

Prmpt

12A VHLL Translation Crossref

.

Graphic

Listing

Table

12B Code Restructrg. Audit

Scanning

DIagnst

Listing

SCode

13-1 Text Editinq

Formating

Management Text Data

13-2 VHLL Formatl ng CompI ,Chk,

Cons I st . Ck

DataF I .Anal

Tracking

•

Graphic

Listing

Text

Data

14A Code Crossref. Listing

Text

14B Code Command Editing

Formatl ng

Translation

Comparison

Crossref.

Management

Scanning

Tracking

Tracing DIagnst

Graphic

Listing

Text

OCode

SCode

OCode = Object Code SCode = Source Code
PAGE 75

I nterv Inpkt.S Functions Q-U-tp.u.t?

No. Tool Control Transformation

Static

Analysis

Dynamic

Analysis

User Mach 1 ne

15 Code Command Format 1 ng

1 nstrument.

Statl st leal Cover, Anal

.

Timing

Listing

Tab 1 es SCode

16 Code Command Restructrg.

Optimizat’n

Struct, Chk, Cover, Anal

,

Tuning

Graphic

Tables

Text

SCode

17 Code Command Editing

Restructrg,

Translation

Management

Scanning

Listing

Text

SCode

18A Code Command EdItI ng

Formating

Management

Scanning

Listing

Reports

OCode

SCode

18B Data Paramet. SImul at Ion Computr

Resit

Listing

Reports

Data

19 VHLL Editing

Translation

Managment Graphic

Listing

Tables

20 Code Command 1 nstrument.

Translation

Statl stlcal Cover, Anal

,

Listing

Reports

Tables

SCode

21 Data Paramet, Resrc,Utl 1

,

Graphic

Text

Data

22 Code Command Restructrg, DIagnst

Listing

SCode

23 Code Command 1 nstrument. Scannl ng Cover, Anal

,

Listing SCode

Translation Statistical Reports

Tab I es

OCode = Object Code SCode = Source Code
REFERENCES

ClJ H. Hecht, ’’Final Report: A Survey of Software Tool Usage”, NBS Special

Publication 500-82, October 1981

[2] Raymond C. Houghton, Jr., ’’Features of Software Development Tools", NBS

Special Publication 500-74, February 1981.
NBS»1]4A (REV. 2"8C) U.S. DEPT. OF COMM.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA

SHEET (See instructions)

1. PUBLICATION OR

REPORT NO.

2. Performing Organ. Report NoJ 3. Publication Date

4. TiTLE AND SUBTITLE

Synopsis of Interviews from a Survey of Software Tool Usage

5. AUTHOR(S)

Herbert Hecht, SoHaR, Inc,

6. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION (If joint or other than NBS, see instructions) 7. Con tract/ Grant No. SoHaR Incorporated

1040 S. LaJolla Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90035

NB79SBCA0273

S. Type of Report & Period Covered

9.

SPONSORING ORGANIZATION NAME AND COMPLETE ADDRESS (Street, City, State, ZIP)

National Bureau of Standards

Department of Commerce

Washington, DC 20234

10.

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

I I Document describes a computer program; SF-185, FIPS Software Summary, is attached.

11.

ABSTRACT (A 200-word or less factual summary of most significant information. If document includes a significant

bibliography or literature survey, mention it here)

This report contains synopses of all Interviews conducted as part of a survey of the development and use of software tools In Industry And Government

and a classification of the tools encountered. The purnose of the report Is

to document the detailed data In a form which may be helpful for further

research.

12.

KEY WORDS (Six to twelve entries; alphabetical order; capitalize only proper names; and separate key words by semicolon s) Programminq aids; software automation; software development; software engineering;

software tools; software tools usage.

13. AVAILABILITY 14. NO. OF

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BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA

1. PUBLICATION OR

REPORT NO.

2. Performing Organ. Report No. 3. Publication Date

SHEET (See instructions) NBSIR 81-2388 November 1981

4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE

Synopsis of Interviews from a Survey of Software Tool Usage

5. AUTHOR(S)

Herbert Hecht, SoHaR, Inc.

6. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION (If joint or other than NBS, see instructions) 7. Contract/Grant No. SoHaR Incorporated NB79SBCA0273

1040 S. LaJolla Ave. 8. Type of Report & Period Covered

Los Angeles, CA 90035

9. SPONSORING ORGANIZATION NAME AND COMPLETE ADDRESS (Street. City. State. ZIP)

National Bureau of Standards

Department of Commerce

Washington, DC 20234

10.

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

Document describes a computer program; SF-185, FIPS Software Summary, is attached.

11.

ABSTRACT (A 200-word or less factual summary of most significant information. If document includes a significant

bibliography or literature survey, mention it here)

This report contains synooses of all interviews conducted cis part of a survey of the development and use of software tools In industry and Government

and a classification of the tools encountered. The puroose of the report is

to document the detailed data in a form which may be helpful for further

research.

12.

KEY WORDS (Six to twelve entries; alphabetical order; capitalize only proper names; and separate key words by semicolon s) Programming aids; software automation; software development; software engineering;

software tools; software tools usage.

13. AVAILABILITY 14. NO. OF

PRINTED PAGES

1^^ Unlimited

1 1 For Official Distribution. Do Not Release to NTIS 79

r'^, Order From Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C,

20402. 15. Price

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USCOMM-DC 6043-P80
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