Communications of the ACM articles from June 1997

Communications of the ACM archives from June 1997

Revisiting the industry/academe communication chasm.
June 1, 1997... "The Greek notion of science held it above the vulgar pragmatics, leading to a pedantic tendency that tolerated intellectual laxity, sometimes with tragic consequences." - Noah Kennedy, in The Industrialization of Intelligence Three incidents...

The magnetic poles of data collection.
June 1, 1997... Privacy advocates are looking for new commercial and technological privacy-protection schemes, following industry's repeated success at killing congressional bills that might have curbed their fast-paced collection of data on citizens' health,...

Counting furtive beasts by computer.
June 1, 1997... Where have the rhinos gone? What do white rhinos, blue whales, feral pigs, reef fish and nesting ducks have in common? Wildlife biologists quickly find that these animals, as well as many others, are impossible to count accurately in the...

The quality approach: is it delivering? (use of quality paradigm in software development)(includes related article on the elements of the quality paradigm)(Cover Story)
June 1, 1997... Some companies today are reporting increases in software productivity and quality as high as 1,000% using quality approaches pioneered in other industries. The goals of this special section are to offer guidance to those interested in learning...

Software quality and the Capability Maturity Model. (includes related articles on the maturity levels of the Capability Maturity Model for Software and its increasing use)(Cover Story)
June 1, 1997... CMM has had an enormous impact on the practice of software engineering. There is now substantial evidence of the business benefits of CMM-based software and a growing understanding of the factors that contribute to a successful improvement...

Combining quality and software improvement.(Cover Story)
June 1, 1997... A fascinating case study depicts how CMM and other improvement programs are used at PRC, Inc. Selecting a process improvement paradigm that fits the culture of an organization can provide dramatic results. This article describes how PRC based...

Quantum improvements in software system quality.(Cover Story)
June 1, 1997... Mistakes may build character, but they also build stronger improvement methods. Here are some valuable lessons learned from industry experiences. In 1989, U S WEST Technologies began implementing Total Quality Management (TQM). In the years...

How Microsoft builds software. (Microsoft Corp.)
June 1, 1997... Teams of programmers and testers frequently synchronize and periodically stabilize the changes they make to products in progress, yielding Excel Office, Publisher, Windows 95, Windows NT, Word, Works, and more. Since the mid-1980s, Microsoft...

Choosing classes in conceptual modeling.
June 1, 1997... Lacking accepted rules for creating or evaluating classes that represent human knowledge of a particular domain, modelers can turn to cognitive principles for guidance. Knowledge representation, object-oriented design, and data modeling all...

Designing management support systems using an integrative perspective.
June 1, 1997... Augmenting the process and learning aspects of making decisions. The appropriate design of computer-based systems for supporting managers, referred to here as management support systems (MSSs), is of central importance in both fundamental...

The future of our profession. (computer engineers)
June 1, 1997... There's more to being a good engineer than a high level of technical competence An organization like the ACM, with a variety of publications, newsletters, interest groups, and conferences, provides an important forum for discussing the nature...

Onward to petaflops computing. (includes related article on petaflops research questions)
June 1, 1997... With such programs as the U.S. High Performance Computing and Communications Program (HPCCP), the attention of scientists and engineers worldwide has been focused on the potential of very high performance scientific computing, namely systems...

Spam, spam, spam! (unsolicited electronic mail advertisements)
June 1, 1997... Are you flooded with Internet spams (unsolicited email advertisements) from hustlers, scammers, and purveyors of smut, get-rich-quick-schemes, and massive lists of email addresses? Some of us - particularly moderators of major mailing lists -...