Evolution - The Nineties View

The process of E-type software development andevolution has proven most difficult to improve, possibly due to the fact that the process is a multi-input, multi-output system involving feedback at many levels. This obsewation,first recordedin the early 70s during an extended study of OS/360 evolution, was recently captured in a FEAST hypothesis; a hypothesis being studied in on-going twoyear project, FEAST/l, Preliminary conclusions based on a study of a financial transaction system, FW, are outlined and compared with those reachedduring the earlier OS/360 study. The new analysis supports, or better does not contradict, the laws of software evolution, suggesting that the 1970s approach to metric analysis of software evolution is still relevant today. It is hoped that FEAST/l will provide a foundation for mastering the feedback aspects of the software evolution process, opening up new