Bemer, Bob.
The Software Factory Principle. Computer History Vignettes, 2000. Available from <
http://web.archive.org/web/20161002192230/http://www.bobbemer.com/FACTORY.HTM >. access on 16 October 2019.
This piece documents the origins of the software factory concept, and in some ways laments that most of the world has never made good use of it.
The major historian of the software factory is Michael A. Cusumano of M.I.T. From [1], which is a must reading for the seriously interested, are extracted:
- “Perhaps the earliest proponent, R. W. Bemer of General Electric, made many proposals that culminated in a 1968 paper [5] suggesting that General Electric develop a software factory to reduce variability in programmer productivity through standardized tools, a computer-based interface, and a historical database useful for financial and management controls. ... Bemer's paper gave the first working definition of what might constitute a software factory.”
- “While Bemer focused on standardized tools and controls, M.D. McIlroy of AT&T emphasized another factory-like concept: systematic reusability of code when constructing new programs.” [8]
- “Reaction to McIlroy's ideas was mixed ... Nonetheless, by the late 1960s, the term ‘factory’ had arrived in software engineering and was being associated with computer-aided tools, management-control systems, modularization, and reusability.”
- “The first company in the world to adopt the term ‘factory’ (actually, its Japanese equivalent ‘kojo’, which translates to either ‘factory’ or ‘work’') to label a software facility was Hitachi, which founded the Hitachi Software Works in 1969.”
My copy of this paper came from Don McNamara of
Corporate Information Technology at GE, with a cover note saying “Congratulations! Your vision has made a permanent impact on our profession.” I cherish it.
Software News of 1987 March, page 38, in an article entitled “‘Factories’ for Software?”, reported McNamara's talk in the distinguished lecturer series at the Wang Institute. “Design code for re-use, and register it. Re-use is a secret to productivity”, he said.
[...] (Bemer, 2000).
[1] M.F.Cusumano, “The software factory: a historical interpretation”,
IEEE Software Magazine, 1989 March, 23-30.
[5] [50] R.W.Bemer, “The economics of program production”, Proc. IFIP Congress 68, Booklet I, 13-14
Keywords:
integrated development environment,
personal information manager,
word processing program,
web application platform,
software factory model,
software collaboration,
software engineering,
software ecosystems,
development environment,
tooling platform,
application framework,
meaningful modeling,
instant messaging,
debugging designs,
software economics,
content management,
project collaboration,
modeling tool,
text editor,
modeller,
software,
browser,
wiki,
SourceForge,
Mozilla Thunderbird
Case. Available from <
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case >. access on 23 October 2019.
Computer-aided software engineering. Available from <
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-aided_software_engineering >. access on 23 October 2019.
IDE. Available from <
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDE >. access on 18 October 2019.
Integrated development environment. Available from <
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_development_environment >. access on 18 October 2019.
Software factory. Available from <
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_factory >. access on 16 October 2019.
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GregorioIvanoff - 17 Oct 2019
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