Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Microsoft also agreed to provide competitors with application program in-
terface (API) data and to stop interfering with attempts to connect third-party
browsers and software to Windows. This was a major decision for Microsoft com-
petitors and for dozens of commercial software vendors who needed their pack-
ages to operate under Windows in order to market them.
February of 2001 witnessed an important moment in software history. This was
the meeting at the Snowbird Lodge in Utah, which led to the publication of the
famous Agile Manifesto. The 17 participants included Kent Beck, Mike Beedle,
Arie van Benekum, Alastir Cockburn, Ward Cunningham, Martin Fowler, James
Grenning, Jim Highsmith, Andrew Hunt, Ron Jeffries, Jon Kern, Bran Marick,
Robert C. Martin, Steve Mellor, Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland, and Dave Tho-
mas.
This decade saw the creation of the Information Technology Metrics and Pro-
ductivity Institute (ITMPI) by Computer Aid, Inc. The ITMPI began a series of
seminars and webinars to expand knowledge of software engineering principles.
Eventually, the ITMPI had a stable of perhaps 50 top-tier software experts and
public speakers whose topics were recorded for later use.
The year 2004 witnessed the arrival of Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg to the
web, although earlier versions were experimented with. Facebook started the so-
cial network explosion, which is still occurring today, although not every new so-
cial network succeeds. The 2010 film
The Social Network
is an interesting account
of the creation of Facebook, as well as a warning about litigation.
The year 2006 saw the arrival of Jack Dorsey's creation Twitter on the web,
and the site had expanded to 500 million users by 2012.
In 2008, the Brazilian government issued a new regulation that affected all
government contracts. Contractors were required to stop using “effort hours” and
switch to formal metrics. This was the IN04 directive. Although the directive did
not mandate function points, the overall impact of the regulation was such that
the International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG) function points became the
normal metric for both government and commercial contracts in Brazil. A number
of IFPUG executives have been from Brazil, including a past president.
The governments of Italy and South Korea also use function points for gov-
ernment contracts, and they may pass regulations similar to those used in Brazil.
Function point metrics are definitely the most reliable metrics for software con-
tracts and business purposes.
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