Factory Concepts and Practices in Software Development: An Historical Overview (Classic Reprint) - Hardcover

Michael A. Cusumano

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0260822191 ISBN 13: 9780260822192

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2018

Synopsis

From craft to factory: how software began to be built like mass production

In Factory Concepts and Practices in Software Development: An Historical Overview, the book examines how major software makers experimented with factory-style methods to tame a dynamic, complex art form. It traces early ideas from the 1960s through the 1980s and shows why software resisted standardization, while also highlighting the push to reuse code, standardize tools, and align teams around repeatable processes.

Two clear threads run through the discussion: the problems that software faces as a rapidly evolving technology, and the practical experiments that sought steadier productivity and quality. Readers will see why researchers and managers debated whether software could or should resemble manufacturing, and how firms like IBM, SDC, Toshiba, NEC, Hitachi, and Fujitsu tried different structures, tools, and incentives to that end.

• The software crisis and unpredictable time, cost, and quality in large programs
• Early factory ideas, from standardized environments to modular reuse
• Storehouses of reusable parts, tool suites, and integrated development methods
• Organizational tricks that encouraged planning, measurement, and component reuse

Ideal for readers of technology history and software engineering who want context on how large software systems began to be approached as managed, repeatable processes.

Edition details

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0260822191
• ISBN 13: 9780260822192
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 80