The development of complex GPSS programs: An empirical assessment

Abstract The underlying theme of this paper is that highly disciplined and well thought out modeling and programming practices are as important to the successful development of a complex simulation program in a structured language, such as GPSS, as they are in an unstructured language, such as FORTRAN. To support this contention, the validation and verification process of a rather challenging GPSS program is described in detail. This is followed by a discussion of the processing environment decision (i.e. batch, on-line or interactive) as it affects most program development activities. Next, based upon the experience with this project, a structured and staged program development approach is suggested. This iterative method calls for simultaneous conceptual modeling and architectural (i.e. macro) coding. Strategic, tactical as well as operational planning considerations associated with this approach are presented.