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From: jls@netcom.COM (Jim Showalter)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Modifiability
Keywords: Maintainability, Modifiability
Message-ID: <1991Jun6.230049.19029@netcom.COM>
Date: 6 Jun 91 23:00:49 GMT
References: <2192@Terra.cc.brunel.ac.uk> <1991Jun5.201807.13286@netcom.COM> <2195@Terra.cc.brunel.ac.uk>
Distribution: comp.software-eng
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  UNIX System {408 241-9760 guest}
Lines: 24

>I would like to learn more about such methodology, and if you (or any one else
>can point out those methodologies, are they used in industry, what kind of 
>application? The neture of the development infra-structure? Are there 
>none-Object Oriented methods. What is the minimum support needed form the 
>development environment/programming language.

I have described this method elsewhere. It is not all that remarkable (people
seem to expect ACA [Another Clever Acronym] or ASB [Another Sexy Buzzword],
when all this is is the codification of common sense). Prototype. Iterate.
Embrace feedback. Focus on architecture and design--coding is trivial in
comparison. Emphasize reusability, maintainability, and line-of-business
concerns (e.g. if you build air defense systems for a living, why not
acknowledge that fact up front and build an architecture that is broadly
applicable to air defense systems?). Implement in a software-engineering-
oriented language (may I suggest Ada?). Use industrial-strength tools. Make
documentation subservient to design, not the other way around. Look for
objects and classes in the design--but don't get so carried away you wind
up torturing the language to make verbs into nouns. Tune for performance,
don't let a focus on performance distort your entire design.
-- 
**************** 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++.    *