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A great deal of time and money has been and will continue to be spent in developing software. Much effort has gone into the generation of various software development methodologies that are meant to improve both the process and the product (MYER, 75, BAKE, 74, WOLV, 72). Unfortunately, it has not always been clear what the underlying principles involved in the software development process are and what effect the methodologies have; it is not always clear what constitutes a better product. Thus progress in finding techniques that produce better, cheaper software depends on developing new deeper understandings of good software and the software development process through studying the underlying principles involved in software and the development process. At the same time we must continue to produce software.
Basili et al. (1977) studied this question.