The use of written guidelines for application developmentcontributes to a better product, increased productivity, andbetter communication with both management and users.

Yes,Folks,~ :~ StandardsAPrequ a

Many-SplendoredThing

Philip H. BravermanIBM

Would you believe that the most powerful gives his all on every festive occasion-a marvelousdevelopment productivity technique you can employ performer.is to use standards for application development? Why is the turkey so good each time and so consis-Standards, or guidelines, are a written, usable formu- tent from year to year and place to place? Becauselization of experience-successful experience. Their there are standard ways to cook turkeys. Provenuse overcomes a common problem: Most project ex- methods with lists of instructions for converting theperience is lost, or at best handed down by word of raw bird into a golden brown mouthwatering delight.mouth or individual behavior. Standards are descrip- Call them recipes if you like, but they really are stan-tions of what "products" are needed, how they dards, and written ones at that. Every facet of theshould be built, and what they should look like when fowl deed is explained in detail. But that doesn'tcompleted. Standards can be descriptions of the best mean you can't add your own special seasoning.set of procedures to follow during the product's What it does mean is that if you follow the standarddevelopment. Written standards are a consistent, directions you will complete this culinary project ineffective means of communication among the project grand style-and chances are you won't burn yourteam, users, and management. bird! Let me illustrate:Without standards, the target is often blurred and

difficult to hit- * Estimating. "A 12-pound turkey feeds 16people." I have 17 people coming for dinner.

"Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from Let's see, that's 3/4 lb. per person; I need a 12.75here? lb. bird.

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," * Scheduling. "Preheat time is 6 minutes + 15said the cat. minutes on a side + 20 minutes per pound.""I don't much care where-," said Alice.

"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the cat. Let's see, that's 12.75 x 20 = 225 minutes + 6 +3L0 = 291 minutes. Four hours and 51 minutesLEWISCARROLL ought to do it!

With standards, you will know where you're going * Describing the major tasks. "Season a stuffedand you will be able to recognize your destination turkey with salt, place bird on its side in awhen you've arrived. roasting pan fitted with a rack. Cook in a

preheated (425 IF.) oven 15 minutes, then turnonthe other side and cook for 15 minutes longer.Reduce to moderate heat (375 OF.) and continueroasting ... turn the bird from side to side and

Consider the turkey... baste often with . . ."* Completion criteria. "Place the bird on its back

Meleagris gallopavo grand native bird of our land, for the last 15 minutes. Pierce the thigh forcenter of attraction at our holiday table-sandwiches doneness. If the juice that runs out is clearfor the next week, maybe.soup, too. The turkey really without a tinge of pink, the bird is done!"

July 1979 0018-9162/79/0700-0081600.75 © 1979 IEEE 81

Followed faithfully, and with calibrated equip- So what will you achieve from a standard like this,ment, this standard will bringyou in on time, on plan, assuming you adopt one? You will know, should youand with the ultimate user satisfaction (pass the be given a design project to manage, what productsturkey again, please). You will also find that your will have to be developed-so will your manager andturkey recipe calls for other standards-for example, your users. You will know what the purpose and ob-for the construction of essentials like stuffing ... and jectives of the design effort are-so will the users andfor preparing the bird (so you won't start out cooking management. All of you will be readily able to see iftoo early-like before the feathers are removed!). you are meeting the objectives. You will have a list ofConsistent application of successful experience time the major tasks to help you in the estimating andafter time. That's what standards can do for you. scheduling process. You will know in advance how

the project has to be controlled and who has toapprove the work. You will have ground rules for

Out of the kitchen and into the frying pan controlling change. You will know what detail isrequired so that you don't overproduce or fail to

Many of us have been involved with enough tur- produce the appropriate level of detail for the nextkeys to last a lifetime and suspect that there might be phase of the project. You will know what technicala better way to develop systems. You can clean up a standards apply to this project. In short, you will bemess in the kitchen in a few minutes, but cleaning up readily able to plan your project in detail anda mess of a project takes considerably longer. Let's communicate its goals and activities to your peoplelook at some examples of standards as they apply to more clearly than ever before..application development.There are two types of standards used in develop-

ment: technical standards, such as structured pro- A useful standards manual gathers no dustgramming in Cobol and data base design guidelines;and project planning and management standards, You will need a starter set of guidelines for applica-such as design phase guidelines and project tracking tion development. Most useful would be gnidelinesand review guidelines. Most of what follows is de- forvoted to the management standards. The terms for"standards" and "guidelines" are used interchang- .f sably. feasiblity studies,

Project planning and management standards are * project planning and estimating,aimed at improving the degree of communication * system design,among users, developers, and management. Such * programdevelopment,standards grow out of successful, documented ex- * system testing,perience and a commitment by management to main- * conversion,tain a successful environment. * project tracking, andA standard for a system design effort might look change control.

like this:

Design phase guidelines: Your standards development effort will invariablylead to the creation of a project or development

* Section 1. Describes the purpose of the design "handbook" providing instructions, guidelines,phase. procedures, and handy forms to be used for project

* Section 2. Lists the work-products of the phase, management, and specifying the controls, reviews,and the documentation required. and sign-offs required for each development phase.

* Section 3. Lists the major tasks to be performed The "handbook" should be used in all developmentduring the phase. and maintenance efforts to provide guidance to the

* Section 4. Lists the level of detail required for the project manager and the project team indesign document, such as input/ouput and database descriptions. Describes what each section * project planning,of the design document is to contain. * orienting project personnel,

* Section 5. Lists other standards to be used dur- * consistent project execution, anding the system design, such as recovery support, * measuring how wel projects are performed.data security, audits and controls, HIPOdocumentation, and testing standards. Where do you get standards? Many usable or

* Section 6. Lists the management plans to be used adaptable standards are described in courses, books,during the design process such as project track- and articles on project management. However, youing systems, change control procedures, and pro- can write standards yourself or have someone writeject reviews. them for you. Standards and procedures should be

* Section 7. Describes the sign-offs and approvals drafted carefully and reviewed by the people who willthat will be needed during and at the completion be using them. They should be tested for workabilityof the system design. and revised, if necessary, until they are satisfactory.

* Section 8. Defines the terms used in the system They should be distributed to the development staffdesign standard. and included as a part of new employee orientation.

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Keeping development standards relevant andusable. Sad to say, many standards manuals andproject handbooks are gathering dust. Despite a sin-cere effort to make them helpful, they are eitherrejected as unusable or simply ignored. Factors ren-dering them unusable include rapid obsolescence,wordiness, size, and complexity. They may beignored simply because no one bothers to enforcetheir use. Finally, the existing standards may nolonger fit current development needs.Standards have to-be kept up to date if they are to

be usable. Managementmust be committed to theiruse and must make someone responsible for keepingthem current.Although this article is not intended to tellyou how

to write standards, I can offer a few hints...Standards should be well written in plain English

and easy to read. I don't like standards that read likemilitary specifications, in which section 1.1.2.3 refer- R aste r scanences paragraph 3.2 of section 4.4.4.6.7.8! It's prettyeasy to get quickly turned off by an arbitrary four-inch-thick set of standards and procedures. Instruc- h 7' h r s l to

tions should be crisp and easy to interpret-support- i9 r sued by examples where possible. The handbook should re fesh graphicSbe well indexed since it will be used as a reference Jgwork; subjects or topics should-be easy to find. Usingmagnetic cards or tape or otherwise automating canensure easy handbook updating. There should also be can'ta control list-of who has the manual and a page ver- at a price you can' Ignoresion control with appropriate date and version indi- Now you can have a systemcations. to meet your unique computer-graphics applications

System-sophistication made practical for the OEMand end-user

Problem: Is there a time when you shouldn't * Full refresh, flicker-free, raster scan displayuse standards? -up to 1280 x 1024 pixels in 16-levels of grayscale

-display 1024 simultaneous colors fromcolor look-up table

"Uncertainty makes me nervous... -up to 16 bits of intensity or overlay data per pixelCertainty makes me unnervous." * Interfaces for most minicomputers

MARY HARTMAN, * Gamma-corrected and composite video outputMARY HARTMAN 0 High-speed, variable image processing

-pixel update as fast as 45 nsec per pixelYou probably should not consider using standards -random and sequential updateYou probably ~~~~~~~~~~-dynamicmemory allocation

in your application development organization if the -writeable control storefollowing conditions hold: 0 User can program the alphanumeric

generator and define the cursor* You tried them once and they didn't work. * Nondestructive functions to* Your people won't put up with standards. highlight image displayed

dois totally unique. ~~-vector and alphanumeric overlays on image* Everything you do is totaly umique. -zoom with continuous 4-directional scrolling* You have absolutely nothing to learn from past * Command i/o and DMA to host computer

experience. * Peripheral options* You don't currently haveany standards or guide-lins A versatile graphics-system to meet yourlines. widely diverse needs that you'Il want to know

* You don't have time for this sort of thing. more about. Just write Lexidata Corporation,215 Middlesex Turnpike, Burlington, MA 01803

Although these "reasons" may seem silly, they are or faster yet, call us at 617 273-2700, and askuttered all too often in our business. The real purpose for a sales engineer.behind standards and guidelines, after all, is to helpus do a better, more professional, more consistent Best in graphics, year after yearjob. With today's costs it is no longer possible to putup with seat-of-the-pants development and the re- IILs III Le Icatasulting overruns, missed schedules, and poor quality. lUpF iiat1hi0Nor are standards an affront to the DP profes- l

sion-not by any means. In other fields such as law, 215 Middlesex Turnpike, Burlington, MA 01803617 273-2700 * TWX 710-332-1381

July 1979 Reader Service Number 10

medicine, and architecture, comprehensive guide- * They minimize orientation and training time.lines cover everything from appendix removal to the * Standards foster a consistent application ofstandards for building design and construction. In labor-saving techniques and tools across afact, it is amazing how DP people have escaped all number of projects.these years with so few standards and conventions. * In design work, they eliminate over-detail, mini-Nobody wants to submit to an inflexible and monoto- mize under-detail, and provide a solid basis fornous routine, but as one who has spent a considerable planning the next part of the project.amount of time fretting over large development * They provide a definition of standard tasksefforts, I sleep a lot better when I know I have a well- which aid in the planning and estimatingdocumented development process, a carefully process, and they lead to consistency in theconstructed management system, and a set of com- quality of the developed products.prehensive guidelines. * Standards provide a framework for keeping pro-

ject completion data which can add to the reli-ability of future estimates.By eliminating the thrashing which usuallySo how do standards affect your development occurs on the front end of a project, they reduce

productivity? -confusion in interpreting what work is to bedone.

Let me recount the ways... * They provide a well-defined path for the ap-proval process, eliminating frustration and

* Standards stop the writing of new control sys- delay.tems and procedures for each project. * They allow better control ofprojects done by out-

s In testing and quality control, they lead to better side vendors.tested products requiring less maintenance. * Standards tell the user his role in the develop-

ment process and show what resources he willhave to supply.

* By contributing to a stable management system,they enable it to better measure improvements.

* They help proj ect managers control change andeliminate rework and unnecessary/unplannedactivities.

* Standards provide the environment andEl |materials with which to train new project

managers and leaders.DStandards help pinpoint responsibilities during

APPLIED development.

MATHEMATICSYou've heard the arguments-now do you

Postdoctoral opportunity believe? Yes, of course, you do. Standards can helpwith Argonne National Laboratory your people work more productively. Standards con-

tribute to a better product and improve communica-Our Software Engineering Group has a temporary tion with both management and users. Now, let's getposition (one-year term with the possibility of oneyear extension) for a PhD who will pursue research out there and begin planning our standards selec-related to program transformation and participate in tions and development effort! Uthe development and application of TAMPR, aprogram transformation system actively used tosystemize mathematical software and deriveprovably correct programs.Areas of interest include: correctness of programtransformations; abstract data representations fornumerical and non-numerical algorithms; trans-formational implementation of abstract data; and Phil Braverman is a program managertransformational semantics. for DP services in IBM's contractPosition offers fully commensurate compensation. application development organization.To apply, please send detailed resume and salary He is currently responsible forhistory to: Mr. Walter McFall, AMD Argonne Nation- producing self-study courses inal Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL application development and project60439. management. He is one of the principal

authors of the Managing the Applica-- tion Development Process independent

ARGONNE X study program.Braverman joined IBM in 1959. He. "vNATIONAL LABORATORY has held management positions in systems engineering,

oIAUA USDOE An Equal Opportunity Employer, M/F education, and development, including an assignment inBritain as manager of a large development group. He re-ceived his BS and MBA from the University of California.

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