A Successful Software Development

In 1980, System Development Corporation (SDC) delivered software for a modern air defense system (ADS) for a foreign country. Development of the ADS software was a successful SCD project where all products were delivered within budget and within an ambitious 25 month schedule. This paper describes SDC´s approach and experience in developing ADS software. SDC´s software development approach included the first time use of an off-the-shelf operating system for a major air defense system, the application of a selective set of modern software development techniques, and use of a matrix management structure. SDC´s successful application on ADS of a commercial operating system, a higher order language, a Program Design Language, a Program Production Library, structured walk-throughs, structured programming techniques, incremental build implementation and testprocedures, interactive development, and word processing is described. A discussion of the advantages realized and difficulties encountered in the ADS matrix management structure is presented. The paper concludes with a summary of how SDC will develop software on future projects as a result of its experience on ADS.