Characterization of an Ada Software Development

Abstract : This article examines the use of Ada in a software project developed by the General Electric Company. The project was monitored by the University of Maryland and GE to identify areas of success and difficulty in learning and using Ada as both a design and a coding language. Since production-quality Ada translators were not readily available, the study focused on training and early software development. Our study also presents the major factors to consider before using Ada in software development, particularly when training in Ada is necessary. Our study attempts to meet several goals. The first focuses on characterization of the effort, the changes, and the errors of the project. The second considers how Ada was used on the project. The third concerns evaluation of the data collection and validation process, while the fourth concentrates on the development of measures for the Ada Programming Support Environment.