Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!uunet!igor!rutabaga!jls From: jls@rutabaga.Rational.COM (Jim Showalter) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Evaluating the use of methodology, Message-ID: Date: 16 Apr 91 03:26:54 GMT References: <1991Apr2.200958.8208@spool.cs.wisc.edu> <4909@berry7.UUCP> <4239.2805a798@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> <28062E7B.25315@ics.uci.edu> Sender: news@Rational.COM Lines: 18 %A design methodology is supposed to be able to help in improving %the quality of software. After one chooses a methodology and uses it %to design a software, there is any way in which he/she can evaluate how %effectively the methodology have helped the project? The only way I know of is to have a shadow project do the same software in a different methodology and contrast the result (along several axis, such as cost, time, maintainability, bugginess, etc). I know of several cases in which this was done by companies wishing to get some real numbers about the merits of functional vs object-oriented approaches: in all the cases I'm aware of the object-oriented projects came out on top even though they had to learn a new methodology (and sometimes a new language) as part of the process. -- * The opinions expressed herein are my own, except in the realm of software * * engineering, in which case I borrowed them from incredibly smart people. * * * * Rational: cutting-edge software engineering technology and services. *