RELIABLE SOFTWARE AND COMMUNICATION .2. CONTROLLING THE SOFTWARE-DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

The software created by industrial, educational, and research organiza tions is increasingly large and complex. It also occupies a central ro le in the reliability and safety of many essential services. We examin e the software development process and suggest opportunities for impro ving the process by using a combination of statistical and other proce ss control techniques. Data, analysis of data, and tools for collectin g data are crucial to our approach. Although our views are based upon experiences with large telecommunications systems, they are likely to be useful to many other developers of large software systems.