Annotated Bibliography and References - The Technical and Social History of Software Engineering - page 436

Medical practice provides many other valuable lessons for software such as li-
censes and board certification and malpractice monitoring. Readers are referred to
the later entry in this bibliography for Paul Starr's book on the social transforma-
tion of American medicine.
Jones, Capers. Estimating Software Costs , 2nd edition. McGraw-Hill, New
York, 2007.
This older book discusses the methods and techniques used by parametric soft-
ware estimation tools, an industry that began in the 1970s. A total of five paramet-
ric estimation companies are discussed in the current book, since this is a signific-
ant subindustry of software project management.
The topic provides examples and some algorithms for predicting the quality,
cost, schedule, effort, and staffing for software development and software main-
tenance projects. It also shows how estimates need to be adjusted for various meth-
ods, programming languages, and team experience levels.
The topic is included here because it has a summary treatment of the history of
the software estimating subindustry. Software estimates have been made easier by
the development of function point metrics. These simplify estimates for require-
ments, design, and other noncoding tasks. Collectively, the effort for producing
paper documents is sometimes much more than for code itself. Some military soft-
ware projects have spent more than twice as much on paper as on code.
Jones, Capers. Applied Software Measurement , 3rd edition. McGraw-Hill,
New York, 2008.
This topic includes some historical data on productivity and quality levels
between the 1960s and the 2000s. The topic also includes information on how
quality and productivity rates differ among the various types of software, such as
embedded applications, systems software, commercial software, internal informa-
tion systems, web applications, domestic and offshore outsource groups, and many
others.
Jones, Capers. Software Engineering Best Practices . McGraw-Hill, New
York, 2010.
This topic includes data and descriptions of a number of development methods
and practices, and it also discusses where past experiences may lead to in terms
of future software engineering. In one chapter, it makes a big leap and considers
what software might be like in 2049.