Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!pacbell.com!pacbell!rtech!dennism
From: dennism@ingres.com (Dennis Moore)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: CASE - The Emperor has no clothes on!
Summary: Huh???
Keywords: CASE IS NOT rubbish
Message-ID: <5456@rtech.Ingres.COM>
Date: 14 Jun 90 21:58:11 GMT
References: <37538@genrad.UUCP> <814@sagpd1.UUCP>
Sender: news@rtech.Ingres.COM
Reply-To: dennism@menace.UUCP (Dennis Moore)
Lines: 40

In article <814@sagpd1.UUCP> jharkins@sagpd1.UUCP (Jim Harkins) writes:
>In article <37538@genrad.UUCP> charlie@genrad.com (Charlie D. Havener) writes:
>>'Are Structured Design CASE tools worth investing time, effort and money in?'
>>I have tentatively formed my decision. The answer is NO!
>
>I second the motion, they have nowhere near the power and flexibility of UNIX
>or even DOS.

Huh???

Do you drive to work or do you bring your lunch?

Look, I learned to program on a TRASH-80 with cassette drive, an HP1000 with
paper tape, and an IBM 360 with punched cards, in 1977.  I love to hack as
much as the next hacker.  Now, I'm forced to reexamine my prejudices against
CASE, as I am the CASE Products development manager here at INGRES Corp.
(CAVEAT -- THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF INGRES CORPORATION!!!).

I have recently (i.e. last year through now) read extensively on CASE
productivity studies.  Several organizations, such as the Software Engineering
Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon U. have published studies proving that,
for at least some types of projects with some types of employees in some types
of organizations, SADT tools increase productivity.

Show me a single study which contradicts this -- and I mean that shows that
under no circumstances does SADT help over and above simply getting down and
coding.  OOA or OOD may in fact help more;  this I am not arguing.

Finally, before writing off the government's documentation requirements as
busywork invented by frightened bureaucrats, think a little further.  For one
thing, to create the required paperwork, you have to do the work on which the
paperwork is based.  You must create test plans and designs.

Why does the government require this?  Well, I'm sure that your average
MIS program, as again documented by many studies, has 10 to 30 bugs per KLOC
(by some reckonings -- I don't have an attribution handy).  The average
control program for a fighter jet has substantially fewer -- and I bet the
pilot is pretty happy about that.

-- Dennis Moore, my own opinions, blahblahblah