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A field study of the software design process for large systems
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Communications of the ACM archive
Volume 31 ,  Issue 11  (November 1988) table of contents
Pages: 1268 - 1287  
Year of Publication: 1988
ISSN:0001-0782
Authors
Bill Curtis  Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp., Austin, TX
Herb Krasner  Lockheed Research Division, Austin, TX
Neil Iscoe  Univ. of Texas, Austin
Publisher
ACM  New York, NY, USA
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ABSTRACT

The problems of designing large software systems were studied through interviewing personnel from 17 large projects. A layered behavioral model is used to analyze how three of these problems—the thin spread of application domain knowledge, fluctuating and conflicting requirements, and communication bottlenecks and breakdowns—affected software productivity and quality through their impact on cognitive, social, and organizational processes.


REFERENCES

Note: OCR errors may be found in this Reference List extracted from the full text article. ACM has opted to expose the complete List rather than only correct and linked references.

 
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CITED BY  271


REVIEW

"David Noel Card : Reviewer"

Because of the difficulty, expense, and time involved in collecting data and performing quantitative analyses, many recent investigators of critical software engineering problems have adopted field research or case study methods. Instead of usin  more...

Collaborative Colleagues:
Bill Curtis: colleagues
Herb Krasner: colleagues
Neil Iscoe: colleagues