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The profession of IT

An Interview with Dave Parnas

By Peter J. Denning
Communications of the ACM, June 2018, Vol. 61 No. 6, Pages 25-27
10.1145/3208097
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David Lorge Parnas is well known for his insights into how best to teach software engineering. Parnas has been studying software design and development since 1969, and has received more than 25 awards for his contributions. In 2007, he shared the IEEE Computer Society's 60^th anniversary award with computer pioneer Maurice Wilkes. He received B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He has published more than 285 papers, many of which are considered classics. He designed the CEAB (Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board) accredited McMaster University Software Engineering program, where he is now professor emeritus.

He and seven colleagues have articulated an approach based on actionable capabilities rather than concepts. Communications columnist Peter J. Denning had a conversation with Parnas about these ideas.

Comments

Rudolf Olah

June 08, 2018 12:25

It would be awesome if the references were links to the DOI in the ACM Digital Library. Trying to figure out which papers were referenced in here so I can read up on them is a bit tedious (worthwhile but tedious).

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