1970 to 1979: Computers and Software Begin Creating Wealth - The Technical and Social History of Software Engineering - page 151

needs. But technology changes so rapidly in computers and software that it is not
easy to keep pace.
Yourdon, Inc.
Yourdon, Inc., was founded by the famous software author Ed Yourdon in 1974
in New York. As discussed elsewhere in this chapter, software applications were
becoming large and complex. It was obvious that something more rigorous than
unstructured cowboy development was needed for applications as big as operating
systems.
Yourdon's interesting new company was among quite a few startups from this
decade that actually made a difference in how software was developed. Yourdon
is one of the pioneers of structured development and also one of the most prolific
authors (together with Dr. Gerald Weinberg) of topics that introduced thousands
of young software engineers to better methodologies. Yourdon has written dozens
of topics, but his most famous, due to its striking title, is Decline and Fall of the
American Programmer , published by Prentice Hall in 1992.
When Yourdon ran his company, it grew to about 150 people with offices in the
United States and Europe. Yourdon provided training and consulting to hundreds
of companies and thousands of software engineers.
In 1986, Yourdon was sold to CGI Informatique, a French company that later
merged with IBM. After the sale, Yourdon had some difficulty in extracting his
own name for personal use, which is not uncommon for companies named after
famous individuals.
Yourdon's company did not build either computers or software directly, but it
provided extremely valuable information via topics and training to those who did
build computers and software. The company was a pioneer in a valuable niche.
Yourdon also created a famous magazine called American Programmer , which
later was acquired and changed its name to the Cutter IT Journal . This remains
one of the better journals associated with software engineering.
The Impact of Companies Founded During the 1970s
The companies cited in this chapter show how important computers and software
had become to corporate operations during this decade. FedEx, NASDAQ, and
Southwest Airlines all used computers and software to achieve excellence in cus-
tomer service and to take their respective businesses in new directions probably
not achievable without computers.