The impact of a particular computer language on the process of developing an information system is not well understood. This paper explores the issues through interviews with 16 software developers who changed, or considered changing, from a third to a fourth generation computer language. The conclusion is that there can be considerable costs in hardware, inflexibility and project planning errors incurred by changing to a fourth generation language. The benefits are unlikely to compensate for the costs of changing languages. The key factors influencing the productivity of software developers emerged as social, not technical.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BoddieJ. (1987). Crunch Mode: Building Effective Systems on a Tight Schedule (Yourdon Press, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ).
BoehmB.W., PenedoM.H., StuckleE.D., WilliamsR.D., and PysterA.B. (1984). A software development environment for improving productivity. Computer, 17(6), 30–42.
4.
BrooksF.P. (1975). The Mythical Man-Month (Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA).
5.
CaneA. (1991). Speaking the right language. Financial Times, 6 June 1991.
6.
CaneA. (1992). Exchange grows heated over computers. Financial Times, 27 May 1992.
7.
CrinnionJ. (1991). Evolutionary Systems Development (Pitman, London).
8.
DeMarcoT., and ListerT. (1987). Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams (Dorset House, New York).
9.
GaneC. (1989). Rapid System Development (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ).
10.
GrindleyK. (1991). Managing IT at Board Level (Pitman, London).
11.
HollowayS. (1989). Methodology Handbook for Information Managers (Gower Technical, Aldershot, Hants).
12.
HolwayR. (1992). A Review of the Financial Performance of UK Computing Services Companies, in The Holway Report, 1, Richard Holway Ltd, Farnham, Surrey.
13.
HumphreyW.S. (1988). Characterising the software process: a maturity framework. IEEE Software, 5(2), 73–79.
14.
JonesC. (1986). Programming Productivity (McGraw-Hill, New York).
15.
MartinJ. (1985). System Design from Provably Correct Constructs (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ).
16.
MatsumotoY., and OhnoY. (eds) (1989). Japanese Perspectives in Software Engineering (Addison-Wesley, Singapore).
17.
WallaceJ., and EricksonJ. (1992). Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire (John Wiley & Sons, New York).
18.
YouettC. (1992). Fourth generation languages – special reportComputer Weekly, 4 June 1992.
