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From: jls@netcom.COM (Jim Showalter)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Modifiability
Message-ID: <1991Jun5.201807.13286@netcom.COM>
Date: 5 Jun 91 20:18:07 GMT
References: <2192@Terra.cc.brunel.ac.uk>
Distribution: comp.software-eng
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  UNIX System {408 241-9760 guest}
Lines: 27

>I would like to initiate a discussion on maintainability! 
>there are two main positions that people (and literature) take on how to 
>produce miantainable (and modifiable) software:
>	- Adopting a software development method and making sure that the
>	documentation is up to date will insure that the software will
>	be highly modifiable.

If one adopts a software development method that is worth anything, then
one should wind up, as a consequence, with software that is maintainable
and modifiable. Another way to put this is that one of the criteria for
selecting a software development method is that the method, properly
applied, should result in software that is maintainable and modifiable.

The question then becomes: are there software development methods that
result in maintainable and modifiable software and, if so, what are
they? This question, I answer with a resounding yes: a method that stresses
architecture and design, rapid prototyping, iterative development, incremental
delivery of functionality and documentation, abstraction, and all the other
stuff that has been discussed in this group is such a method. I've seen
such a method followed in real life on real projects of significant scope
and complexity, and I've seen highly maintainable and modifiable software
result from it.
-- 
**************** JIM SHOWALTER, jls@netcom.com, (408) 243-0630 ****************
*Proven solutions to software problems. Consulting and training on all aspects*
*of software development. Management/process/methodology. Architecture/design/*
*reuse. Quality/productivity. Risk reduction. EFFECTIVE OO usage. Ada/C++.    *