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Homilies for humble standards

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Douglas T. RossAuthors Info & Claims

Communications of the ACM, Volume 19, Issue 11

Pages 595 - 600

https://doi.org/10.1145/360363.360365

Published: 01 November 1976 Publication History

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Abstract

At every standards meeting, in clear view on the table there should be a small plaque engraved: “Do it once, do it right, do it internationally.” The many contributions of Douglas Ross exemplify this directive. If, for example, you look at the ASCII standard, ANSI-X3.4-1968, you will find that D.T. Ross represented ACM on the ANSI X3 Committee at that time. This paper is part of an argument that well-founded standards go hand in hand with an effective systems methodology.

When first submitted for refereeing, “Homilies for Humble Standards” was oriented toward Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) applications. As it is now published, the context is elevated to consider all applications. In a similar manner, we can broaden the scope to show that it is the concern of all ACM members. Manufacturing is the application of tools and processes on materials to create a product. Languages are our tools; algorithms and procedures are our processes; data is our material. The product is an enhancement of the power and span of control of the customer.

I commend this paper for your reading as one of the relatively few in ACM publications which tell why ACM and its members should be “involved”; it discusses an unsolved problem, rather than a solution looking for a problem.

References

[1]

Boehm, B.W. Software and its impact: A quantitative assessment. Datamation (May, 1973), 48-59.

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[2]

Boehm, B.W., McClean, R.K., and Urfrig, D.B. Some experience with automated aids to the design of large-scale reliable software. 1EEE Trans. Software Eng. SE-1 (March 1975), 125-131.

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[3]

Ross, D.T. Structured analysis: A language for communicating ideas. Doc.//9031-3, SofTech, Waltham, Mass., Dec. 1975 (submitted to a technical journal).

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Wolverton, R.E. The Cost of Developing Large Scale Software. IEEE Trans. Computers C-23, 6 (June, 1974), 615-635.

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Cited By

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Branstad MPowell P(1984)Software Engineering Project StandardsIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.1984.501020110:1(73-78)Online publication date: 1-Jan-1984
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.1984.5010201
Buckley FPoston R(1984)Software Quality AssuranceIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.1984.501019610:1(36-41)Online publication date: 1-Jan-1984
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.1984.5010196
Koriba M(1983)Database systems: their applications to CAD software designComputer-Aided Design10.1016/0010-4485(83)90016-715:5(277-287)Online publication date: Sep-1983
https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-4485(83)90016-7
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Published In

Communications of the ACM Volume 19, Issue 11

Nov. 1976

54 pages

ISSN:0001-0782

EISSN:1557-7317

DOI:10.1145/360363

Editor:
Robert L. Ashenhurst
Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Issue’s Table of Contents

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 November 1976

Published in CACM Volume 19, Issue 11

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Branstad MPowell P(1984)Software Engineering Project StandardsIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.1984.501020110:1(73-78)Online publication date: 1-Jan-1984
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.1984.5010201
Buckley FPoston R(1984)Software Quality AssuranceIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.1984.501019610:1(36-41)Online publication date: 1-Jan-1984
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.1984.5010196
Koriba M(1983)Database systems: their applications to CAD software designComputer-Aided Design10.1016/0010-4485(83)90016-715:5(277-287)Online publication date: Sep-1983
https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-4485(83)90016-7
Sorkowitz A(1979)Certification TestingComputer10.1109/MC.1979.165884912:8(20-24)Online publication date: 1-Aug-1979
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/MC.1979.1658849
Bergeron RBono PFoley J(1978)Graphics Programming Using the Core SystemACM Computing Surveys10.1145/356744.35674810:4(389-443)Online publication date: 1-Dec-1978
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/356744.356748
Schnupp P(1978)Ist Cobol Unsterblich?Programmiersprachen10.1007/978-3-642-87956-2_3(28-44)Online publication date: 1978
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-87956-2_3

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Data standards quality measured for achieving enterprise interoperability: the case of the SETU standard for flexible staffing

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