Engineering a Solution - The Computer Boys Take Over - page 202

resembled conventional industrial work.” 20 He argues that SDC played
a signifi cant role in diffusing and popularizing the hierarchical approach
to software engineering management.
Whether the claim that SDC policies and SDC personnel played a
direct role in diffusing the hierarchical system of management through-
out the computer industry was valid, similar top-down methodologies
were widely adopted. In the IBM Federal Systems Division, a multilevel
organizational structure was used on all large government projects. IBM
manager Philip Metzger provided a detailed description of the Federal
Systems approach in his highly popular textbook Managing a Programming
Project , which went through three editions in the period between 1973
and 1996. 21 An article titled “Issues in Programming Management” that
appeared in 1974 in the respected industry newsletter EDP Analyzer
listed the hierarchical systems approach as one of the most commonly
implemented software management methodologies. 22 Joel Aron, another
IBM Federal Systems veteran, used the hierarchical model as the basis
for his series of topics on the Program Development Process . 23 The
hierarchical approach to software development was attractive to manag-
ers because it corresponded nicely with the contemporary management
theories. In the fi rst half of the twentieth century, corporate management
became a professional activity dominated by specialists and experts.
These professional managers developed a shared culture and value system
reinforced by an increasingly formalized program of training and educa-
tion. They exerted a high degree of control over the work practices of
their subordinates, scientifi cally managing all aspects of the business and
manufacturing process. EDP managers assumed that the techniques and
structures that appeared to work so effi ciently in traditional industries
would translate naturally into the software development department. It
was only a matter of identifying and implementing the one best way to
develop software components.
Embedded in the hierarchical model of management were a series of
assumptions about the essential character of programming as an occu-
pational activity. Implied in the suggestion that the structures and pro-
cedures of a traditional manufacturing organization could be seamlessly
mapped onto the EDP department was a belief that the skills and experi-
ence required to program a computer were, in effect, not all that different
from those required to assemble an automobile. Managers could defi ne,
in the minutest detail, the specifi cations that the programmers would
follow. In turn, the programmers need only be trained to perform a
limited and specialized function. Individual programmers were looked