Software productivity: potential, actual, and perceived

Abstract

The impressive improvements being made in the cost effectiveness of computer hardware are causing an enormous expansion in the number of applications for which computing is becoming a feasible and economical solution. This, in turn, is creating greater and greater demands for the development and operation of computer software systems. A conservative estimate suggests a hundredfold increase in the demand for software between 1965 and 1985 (Musa 1985).