Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!news
From: daves@alpha.ces.cwru.edu (Dave Stoutamire)
Subject: Governmental policy and software
Message-ID: <1989Dec1.074711.8585@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>
Sender: news@usenet.ins.cwru.edu
Reply-To: daves@alpha.ces.cwru.edu (Dave Stoutamire)
Organization: CWRU Dept of Computer Engineering and Science
Date: Fri, 1 Dec 89 07:47:11 GMT

There has been discussion in comp.risks recently on the (negative)
interaction between governmental procurement policies and the
software development process.  

   [AAAS Science, 10 November 1989, vol. 246, p. 753]
   [by M. Mitchell Waldrop]
   >Dig into any of the government's chronically over-budget and
   >behind-schedule development programs -- the Hubble Space
   >Telescope of the B1-B Bomber, for example -- and you'll find
   >that a good fraction of what gets labeled as "waste, fraud,
   >and abuse" actually stems from crummy software.  Not only do
   >the development agencies habitually spend millions of dollars
   >on operations software that is buggy, inadequate, and late,
   >they have to spend millions of dollars more to fix it.
   >	So says a just released report [nb. "Bugs in the system:
   >Problems in federal government computer software development and
   >regulation"(Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the
   >House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, Government
   >Printing Office, Washington, D.C., September 1989).] from the
   >House Science, Space, and Technology Committee's Subcommittee
   >on Investigations and Oversight.  Written by subcommittee staffer
   >James Paul, who spent 2 years working on it, the report also
   >names a culprit: the government itself.  "Government policies
   >on everything from budgeting to intellectual property rights
   >have congealed over time in a manner almost perfectly designed
   >to thwart the development of quality software," it says...

I thought I would bring this to comp.software-eng, and ask: what research
has been made in this area?  An aim of studying "software engineering"
is certainly to identify which techniques are most likely to lead to faster,
less expensive development and maintenance of large software systems.  
Governments are typical procurers of the largest and most complex, so
the effects of governmental policy should be of great interest.
Could anyone point out worthwhile references (aside from the two above)?

   daves@alpha.ces.cwru.edu  |   David Stoutamire, 
                             |   gradual student in computer engineering
   (216) 368-5038            |   at Case Western Reserve University
   daves@alpha.ces.cwru.edu  |   David Stoutamire, 
                             |   overgrad in computer engineering
   (216) 368-5038            |   at Case Western Reserve University


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