The management and organization of large scale software development projects

Two consecutive papers on the subject, "Managing the Economics of Computer Programming" presented at the 1968 National Conference of the Association of Computing Machinery conclude respectively: •First, one must understand computer programming well enough to know what is possible, what is probable, and what is impossible or unlikely. •Second, one must make commitments based on the technology used, not on the needs of the world---and not on the unreasonable hopes of the starry-eyed experts. •Third, one must insist upon schedules based on physical events, and on numerical descriptions of the products that are being produced, to the greatest extent that ingenuity will permit. •Fourth, one must objectively assess the status of the project against a well-developed plan. •Finally, of course, one must do something about the trouble one finds.