Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The very oldest programming tools appeared in the 1950s in the form of as-
semblers and early compilers for higher-level languages. In today's world, mod-
ern programmers have more than 50 kinds of tools, including requirements tools,
design tools, inspection support tools, test case generators, test library support
tools, automated testing tools, debugging tools, reengineering tools, documenta-
tion tools, defect tracking tools, and too many more to name.
Project Management Software
The technical parts of project management involve scheduling, resource alloca-
tion, cost estimation and cost data collection, change management, status report-
ing, and quality analysis. Computers and software have long been useful for pro-
ject managers in every field. The 1970s witnessed the arrival of parametric soft-
ware estimation tools.
In today's world, this type of software is used by millions of project managers
to handle topics such as staff allocations, progress tracking, budgets, cost estimat-
ing, quality estimating, project office operations, and proposals for new business.
For software projects, there are a number of powerful parametric estimating
tools that are in general more accurate than manual estimates. These include
COCOMO II, Cost Xpert, KnowledgePLAN, SEER, SLIM, Software Risk Master
(SRM), and TruePrice.
All of these predict software development costs. Some also predict quality.
One, SRM, has special estimates for venture-backed software startups and also for
the probability and costs of litigation between outsource contractors and their cli-
ents.
Scientific and Mathematical Software
Computers were created to speed up complex mathematical operations required
by scientists such as astronomers, chemists, and physicists. Specialized software
for statistics and mathematical operations has now become so easy to use that it is
available to high school students.
Ordinary spreadsheets can handle various common calculations. More special-
ized packages such as SAGE, SAS, MatLab, Mathematica, and at least 50 more
are available. Some are freeware, some are open source, while others are fee-based
products. One other example is the R programming language, which is free and
widely used for statistical applications.
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