Software Process Automation in Perspective

Abstract

Jim is the manager responsible for developing the software performance requirements on a flight control computer. Since he is, as usual, overloaded, he asks Bob, one of his engineers, to determine the timing constraints on the system. Bob, who is new to the job, performs the task but significantly overestimates the values. He e-mails these to Jim who inserts them into the requirements document. At the requirements review, Mary who is familiar with timing constraints realizes that something is wrong and requests a recalculation. Jim readily agrees, but because he is preoccupied, forgets to inform Bob about the problem, and corrective action is never taken. When the system is built, a major crisis develops when it is found that the control computer cannot perform the job...