software engineering : An Idea Whose Time Has Come and Gone?

viewpoints Contact Editor: Dennis Taylor ■ dtaylor@computer.org software engineering: An Idea Whose Time Has Come and Gone? t om DeMarco e’re now just past the 40th anniver- Compelled to Control sary of the NATO Conference on The book’s most quoted line is its frst sentence: Software Engineering in Garmisch, “You can’t control what you can’t measure.” This Germany, where the discipline of sof-t line contains a real truth, but I’ve become increas- ware engineering was frst proposed. ingly uncomfortable with my use of it. Implicit in W Because some of my early work be- the quote (and indeed in the book’s title) is that came part of that new discipline, this seems like control is an important aspect, maybe the most im- an appropriate moment for reassessment. portant, of any software project. But it isn’t. Many My early metrics book, Con- projects have proceeded without much control but trolling Software Projects: Man- managed to produce wonderful products such as agement, Measurement, and GoogleEarth or Wikipedia. Estimation (Prentice Hall/Your- To understand control’s real role, you need to don Press, 1982), played a role distinguish between two drastically different kinds in the way many budding soft- of projects: ware engineers quantifed work and planned their projects. In ■ Project A will eventually cost about a mil- my refective mood, I’m wonder- lion dollars and produce value of around $1.1 ing, was its advice correct at the million.