Barry William Boehm (May 16, 1935 – August 20, 2022) was an American
software engineer
Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development.
A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term ''p ...
, distinguished professor
of computer science, industrial and systems engineering; the TRW Professor of Software Engineering; and founding director of the Center for Systems and Software Engineering at the
University of Southern California
, mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it"
, religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist
, established =
, accreditation = WSCUC
, type = Private research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $8.1 ...
. He was known for his many contributions to the area of
software engineering
Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development.
A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term '' ...
.
In 1996, Boehm was elected as a member into the
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...
for contributions to computer and software architectures and to models of cost, quality, and risk for aerospace systems.
Biography
Boehm was born on May 16, 1935. He received a
BA in
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
in 1957, and a
MS in 1961, and
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to:
* Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification
Entertainment
* '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series
* '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic
* Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group
** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...
from
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...
in 1964, both in
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
as well. He also received honorary Sc.D. in Computer Science from the U. of Massachusetts in 2000 and in Software Engineering from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2011.
In 1955 he started working as a programmer-analyst at
General Dynamics
General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...
. In 1959 he switched to the
RAND Corporation
The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is finance ...
, where he was head of the Information Sciences Department until 1973. From 1973 to 1989 he was chief scientist of the Defense Systems Group at
TRW Inc.
TRW Inc., was an American corporation involved in a variety of businesses, mainly aerospace, electronics, automotive, and credit reporting.http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/TRW-Inc-Company-History.html TRW Inc. It was a pionee ...
From 1989 to 1992 he served within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) as director of the
DARPA
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Originally known as the A ...
Information Science and Technology Office, and as director of the DDR&E Software and Computer Technology Office.
From 1992 he was TRW Professor of Software Engineering, Computer Science Department, and director,
USC
USC most often refers to:
* University of South Carolina, a public research university
** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses
** South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program
* University of ...
Center for Systems and Software Engineering, formerly Center for Software Engineering.
He served on the board of several scientific journals, including the ''
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
The ''IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the IEEE Computer Society. It was established in 1975 and covers the area of software engineering. It is considered the leading journal in ...
'', ''
Computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These prog ...
'', ''
IEEE Software'', ''
ACM Computing Reviews ''ACM Computing Reviews'' (''CR'') is a scientific journal that reviews literature in the field of computer science. It is published by the Association for Computing Machinery and the editor-in-chief is Carol Hutchins ( New York University).
See ...
'', ''
Automated Software Engineering'', ''
Software Process'', and ''
Information and Software Technology''.
Awards
Later awards for Boehm included the
Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence
The Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence is an award of the United States government presented by the Office of the Secretary of Defense for civilian service. The award is bestowed on individuals who have made a significant con ...
in 1992, the
ASQC Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994, the
ACM Distinguished Research Award in Software Engineering in 1997, and the
IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operati ...
International
Stevens Award
The Stevens Award is a software engineering lecture award given by the Reengineering Forum, an industry association. The international Stevens Award was created to recognize outstanding contributions to the literature or practice of methods for ...
. He was an
AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA is the U.S. representative on the International Astronautical Federation and the International Council of t ...
Fellow, an
ACM Fellow, an
IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operati ...
Fellow, and a member of the
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...
(1996). He received the Mellon Award for Excellence in Mentoring in 2005 and the IEEE Simon Ramo Medal in 2010. He was appointed a distinguished professor on January 13, 2014.
He was awarded the
INCOSE Pioneer Award in 2019 by the
International Council on Systems Engineering for significant pioneering contributions to the field of systems engineering.
Work
Boehm's research interests included
software development process
In software engineering, a software development process is a process of dividing software development work into smaller, parallel, or sequential steps or sub-processes to improve design, product management. It is also known as a software deve ...
modeling, software
requirements engineering
Requirements engineering (RE) is the process of defining, documenting, and maintaining requirements in the engineering design process. It is a common role in systems engineering and software engineering.
The first use of the term ''requirem ...
,
software architecture
Software architecture is the fundamental structure of a software system and the discipline of creating such structures and systems. Each structure comprises software elements, relations among them, and properties of both elements and relations.
...
s,
software metrics and cost models,
software engineering
Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development.
A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term '' ...
environments, and knowledge-based software engineering.
His contributions to the field, according to Boehm (1997) himself, include "the Constructive Cost Model (
COCOMO
The Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO) is a procedural software cost estimation model developed by Barry W. Boehm. The model parameters are derived from fitting a regression formula using data from historical projects (63 projects for COCOMO 81 ...
), the
spiral model of the software process, the Theory W (win-win) approach to software management and requirements determination and two advanced software engineering environments: the TRW Software Productivity System and Quantum Leap Environment".
Software versus hardware costs
In an important 1973 report entitled "Ada - The Project : The DoD High Order Language Working Group" to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (
DARPA
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Originally known as the A ...
), Boehm predicted that software costs would overwhelm hardware costs. DARPA had expected him to predict that hardware would remain the biggest problem, encouraging them to invest in even larger computers. The report inspired a change of direction in computing.
Software economics
Boehm's 1981 book ''Software Engineering Economics'' documents his Constructive Cost Model (
COCOMO
The Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO) is a procedural software cost estimation model developed by Barry W. Boehm. The model parameters are derived from fitting a regression formula using data from historical projects (63 projects for COCOMO 81 ...
). It relates software development effort for a program, in Person-Months (PM), to ''Thousand Source Lines of Code'' (KSLOC).
Where A is a calibration constant based on project data and B is an exponent for the software diseconomy of scale.
*Note: since man-years are not interchangeable with years,
Brooks' Law applies:
**''Adding programmers to a late project makes it later''.
**Thus this formula is best applied to stable software development teams which have completed multiple projects.
Spiral model
Boehm also created the
spiral model of software development, in which the phases of development are repeatedly revisited. This iterative
software development process
In software engineering, a software development process is a process of dividing software development work into smaller, parallel, or sequential steps or sub-processes to improve design, product management. It is also known as a software deve ...
influenced
MBASE and
extreme programming
Extreme programming (XP) is a software development methodology intended to improve software quality and responsiveness to changing customer requirements. As a type of agile software development,"Human Centred Technology Workshop 2006 ", 2006, P ...
.
Wideband Delphi
Boehm refined the
Delphi method }
The Delphi method or Delphi technique ( ; also known as Estimate-Talk-Estimate or ETE) is a structured communication technique or method, originally developed as a systematic, interactive forecasting method which relies on a panel of experts. The ...
of estimation to include more group iteration, making it more suitable for certain classes of problems, such as software development. This variant is called the
Wideband Delphi method.
Incremental Commitment Model
The Incremental Commitment Model (ICM) is a system design, developmental, and evolution process for 21 century systems. The systems' types cover a wide range from COTS based systems to "routine" Information Systems to human intensive and life or safety critical.
[Boehm, B., Brown, A. W., and Koolmanojwong, S. Demonstration Proposal: Incremental Commitment Model for Software. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA. 90089.]
It was only in 1998, after the development of the ICM that Barry Boehm along with A Winsor Brown started to focus on reconciling it with the WinWin
Spiral Model
The spiral model is a risk-driven software development process model. Based on the unique risk patterns of a given project, the spiral model guides a team to adopt elements of one or more process models, such as incremental, waterfall, or evolut ...
and its incarnation in
MBASE and the follow-on
Lean MBASE
Lean, leaning or LEAN may refer to:
Business practices
* Lean thinking, a business methodology adopted in various fields
** Lean construction, an adaption of lean manufacturing principles to the design and construction process
** Lean governmen ...
, and working towards an Incremental Commitment Model for Software (ICMS) by adapting the existing WinWin
Spiral Model
The spiral model is a risk-driven software development process model. Based on the unique risk patterns of a given project, the spiral model guides a team to adopt elements of one or more process models, such as incremental, waterfall, or evolut ...
support tools.
In 2008, the evolving ICM for Software with its risk-driven anchor point decisions, proved very useful to several projects which ended up having unusual life cycle phase sequences.
Publications
Boehm published over 170 articles
and several books. Books, a selection:
* 1978. ''Characteristics of Software Quality''. With J.R. Brown, H. Kaspar, M. Lipow, G. McLeod, and M. Merritt, North Holland.
* 1981. ''Software Engineering Economics''. Englewood Cliffs, NJ : Prentice-Hall, 1981 .
*
* 1996. ''Ada and Beyond: Software Policies for the Department of Defense''. National Academy Press.
* 2000. ''Software Cost Estimation with COCOMO II''. B. Boehm, C. Abts, A. W. Brown, S. Chulani, B. Clark, E. Horowitz, R. Madachy, D. Reifer, B. Steece. Upper Saddle River, NJ : Prentice-Hall, 2000 .
* 2007. ''Software engineering: Barry Boehm's lifetime contributions to software development, management and research.'' Ed. by Richard Selby. Wiley/IEEE press, 2007. .
* 2004. ''Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed''. With Richard Turner. Pearson Education, Inc 2004 .
* 2014. ''The Incremental Commitment Spiral Model: Principles and Practices for Successful Systems and Software.'' B. Boehm, J. Lane, S. Koolmanojwong, R. Turner. Addison-Wesley Professional, 2014. .
;Articles
* 1996. "Anchoring the Software Process",. In: ''IEEE Software'', July 1996.
* 1997. "Developing Multimedia Applications with the WinWin Spiral Model," with A. Egyed, J. Kwan, and R. Madachy. In: ''Proceedings, ESEC/FSE 97 and ACM Software Engineering Notes'', November 1997.
References
External links
Barry Boehm home page— talk by Barry Boehm
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boehm, Barry
1935 births
2022 deaths
American computer scientists
Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery
Fellow Members of the IEEE
Harvard College alumni
American software engineers
Software engineering researchers
University of Southern California faculty
Harvard University alumni
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering