View source for Barry Boehm

{{short description|American computer scientist (1935–2022)}}
{{distinguish|text=the [[Boehm garbage collector]] created by Hans-Juergen Boehm}}
[[File:O lendário Barry Boehm.jpg|thumb|Barry Boehm]]
'''Barry William Boehm''' (May 16, 1935 – August 20, 2022)<ref>[https://viterbischool.usc.edu/news/2022/09/barry-boehm-a-living-legend-in-systems-and-software-engineering-dies-at-87/ Barry Boehm, a “Living Legend” in Systems and Software Engineering, Dies at 87]</ref> was an American [[software engineer]], distinguished professor<ref name="about.usc.edu">{{cite web|url=http://about.usc.edu/faculty/distinguished-professors/ |title=Distinguished Professors &#124; About USC |access-date=2014-04-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140419234317/http://about.usc.edu/faculty/distinguished-professors/ |archive-date=2014-04-19 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://csse.usc.edu/new/dr-barry-w-boehm-named-usc-distinguished-professor |title=Dr. Barry W. Boehm named USC Distinguished Professor – CSSE |website=Csse.usc.edu |date=2014-01-27 |access-date=2016-10-23 |archive-date=2016-10-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161024024614/http://csse.usc.edu/new/dr-barry-w-boehm-named-usc-distinguished-professor |url-status=dead }}</ref> of computer science, industrial and systems engineering; the TRW Professor of Software Engineering; and founding director of the Center for Systems and Software Engineering at the [[University of Southern California]]. He was known for his many contributions to the area of [[software engineering]].

In 1996, Boehm was elected as a member into the [[National Academy of Engineering]] for contributions to computer and software architectures and to models of cost, quality, and risk for aerospace systems.

==Biography==
Boehm was born on May 16, 1935.<ref>{{cite book |title=IEEE Membership Directory |date=1995 |pages=54 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WgNTAAAAMAAJ&q=Barry+Boehm+1935 |access-date=1 September 2022}}</ref> He received a [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] in [[mathematics]] from [[Harvard University]] in 1957, and an [[Master of Science|MS]] in 1961, and [[PhD]] from [[UCLA]] in 1964, both in [[mathematics]] as well. He also received honorary Sc.D. in Computer Science from the U. of Massachusetts in 2000 and in Software Engineering from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2011.<ref name="Boe97">{{cite web |url=http://csse.usc.edu/new/barry-w-boehm |title=Biography |website=csse.usc.edu |access-date=2017-05-14 |archive-date=2013-09-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130924113019/http://csse.usc.edu/new/barry-w-boehm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1955 he started working as a programmer-analyst at [[General Dynamics]]. In 1959 he switched to the [[RAND Corporation]], where he was head of the Information Sciences Department until 1973. From 1973 to 1989 he was chief scientist of the Defense Systems Group at [[TRW Inc.]] From 1989 to 1992 he served within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) as director of the [[DARPA]] Information Science and Technology Office, and as director of the DDR&E Software and Computer Technology Office.<ref name="Boe97"/> From 1992 he was TRW Professor of Software Engineering, Computer Science Department, and director, [[University of Southern California|USC]] Center for Systems and Software Engineering, formerly Center for Software Engineering.

He served on the board of several scientific journals, including the ''[[IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering]]'', ''[[Computer (magazine)|Computer]]'', ''[[IEEE Software]]'', ''[[ACM Computing Reviews]]'', ''[[Automated Software Engineering]]'', ''[[Software Process: Improvement and Practice|Software Process]]'', and ''[[Information and Software Technology]]''.<ref name="Boe97"/>

==Awards==
Later awards for Boehm included the [[Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence]] in 1992, the [[American Society for Quality|ASQC]] Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994, the [[Association for Computing Machinery|ACM]] Distinguished Research Award in Software Engineering in 1997, and the [[IEEE]] International [[Stevens Award]]. He was an [[AIAA]] Fellow, an [[List of Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery|ACM Fellow]], an [[IEEE]] Fellow, and a member of the [[National Academy of Engineering]] (1996).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nae.edu/29677/Dr-Barry-W-Boehm|title=NAE Directory, 1996}}</ref> He received the Mellon Award for Excellence in Mentoring in 2005<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.usc.edu/programs/cet/mentoring/mellon/awards/ |title=CET: Mentoring: Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Academic Mentoring Support Program: Awards for Excellence in Mentoring: Awards |access-date=2005-08-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050825071420/http://www.usc.edu/programs/cet/mentoring/mellon/awards/ |archive-date=2005-08-25 }}</ref> and the IEEE Simon Ramo Medal in 2010. He was appointed a distinguished professor on January 13, 2014.<ref name="about.usc.edu"/>

He was awarded the [[INCOSE Pioneer Award]] in 2019 by the [[International Council on Systems Engineering]] for significant pioneering contributions to the field of systems engineering.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.incose.org/about-incose/incose-recognition/pioneer-award|title=Pioneer Awards|publisher= INCOSE|access-date= 7 March 2020}}</ref>

==Work==
Boehm's research interests included [[software development process]] modeling, software [[requirements engineering]], [[software architecture]]s, [[software metrics]] and cost models, [[software engineering]] environments, and knowledge-based software engineering.<ref name="Boe97"/>

His contributions to the field, according to Boehm (1997) himself, include "the Constructive Cost Model ([[COCOMO]]), the [[spiral model]] of the software process, the Theory W (win-win) approach to software management and requirements determination and two advanced software engineering environments: the TRW Software Productivity System and Quantum Leap Environment".<ref name="Boe97"/>

===Software versus hardware costs===
In an important 1973 report entitled "Ada - The Project : The DoD High Order Language Working Group" to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ([[Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency|DARPA]]),<ref>William A. Whitaker (1993). [http://archive.adaic.com/pol-hist/history/holwg-93/holwg-93.htm Ada - The Project : The DoD High Order Language Working Group] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080812220309/http://archive.adaic.com/pol-hist/history/holwg-93/holwg-93.htm |date=2008-08-12 }}. Accessdate 2008-08-06.</ref> Boehm predicted that software costs would overwhelm hardware costs. DARPA had expected him to predict that hardware would remain the biggest problem, encouraging them to invest in even larger computers. The report inspired a change of direction in computing.{{cn|date=March 2024}}

===Software economics===
Boehm's 1981 book ''Software Engineering Economics'' documents his Constructive Cost Model ([[COCOMO II|COCOMO]]). It relates software development effort for a program, in Person-Months (PM), to ''Thousand Source Lines of Code'' (KSLOC).

<math> PM = A * (KSLOC)^{B}</math>

Where A is a calibration constant based on project data and B is an exponent for the software diseconomy of scale.

*Note: since man-years are not interchangeable with years, [[Frederick P. Brooks|Brooks' Law]] applies:
**''Adding programmers to a late project makes it later''.
**Thus this formula is best applied to stable software development teams which have completed multiple projects.

===Spiral model===
[[File:Spiral model (Boehm, 1988).png|thumb|160px|Spiral model (Boehm, 1988).]]
Boehm also created the [[spiral model]] of software development, in which the phases of development are repeatedly revisited. This iterative [[software development process]] influenced [[MBASE]] and [[extreme programming]].

===Wideband Delphi===
Boehm refined the [[Delphi method]] of estimation to include more group iteration, making it more suitable for certain classes of problems, such as software development.  This variant is called the [[Wideband Delphi]] method.

===Incremental Commitment Model===
The Incremental Commitment Model (ICM)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sunset.usc.edu/cse/pub/publication/techReport.html |title=CSE Website |website=Sunset.usc.edu |access-date=2016-10-23 |archive-date=2016-03-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303221628/http://sunset.usc.edu/cse/pub/publication/techReport.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> is a system design, developmental, and evolution process for 21{{sup|st}} century systems. The systems' types cover a wide range from COTS based systems to "routine" Information Systems to human intensive and life or safety critical.<ref name="ReferenceA">Boehm, B., Brown, A. W., and Koolmanojwong, S. Demonstration Proposal: Incremental Commitment Model for Software. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA. 90089.</ref>

Boehm then reconciled the ICM with the WinWin [[Spiral Model]] and its incarnation in [[MBASE]]<ref>Boehm, B., Abts, C., Brown, A. W., Chulani, S., Clark, B. K., Horowitz, K., Madachy, R., Reifer, D., and Steece, B. 2000. Software Cost Estimation with COCOMO II. {{ISBN|0-13-026692-2}}. Prentice Hall PTR Upper Saddle River, NJ.</ref> and the follow-on [[Lean MBASE]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://greenbay.usc.edu/csci577/spring2006/site/guidelines/index.html |title=Csci 577A - Software Engineering I |access-date=2009-06-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080618174713/http://greenbay.usc.edu/csci577/spring2006/site/guidelines/index.html |archive-date=2008-06-18 }}</ref> and worked towards an Incremental Commitment Model for Software (ICMS) by adapting the existing WinWin [[Spiral Model]] support tools.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
In 2008, the evolving ICM for Software with its risk-driven anchor point decisions, proved very useful to several projects which ended up having unusual life cycle phase sequences.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

==Publications==
Boehm published over 170 articles<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dblp.uni-trier.de/pers/hc/b/Boehm:Barry_W=.html |title=DBLP: Barry W. Boehm |website=Dblp.uni-trier.de |access-date=2016-10-23}}</ref> and several books. Books, a selection:

* 1978. ''Characteristics of Software Quality''. With J.R. Brown, H. Kaspar, M. Lipow, G. McLeod, and M. Merritt, North Holland.
* 1981. ''Software Engineering Economics''. Englewood Cliffs, NJ : Prentice-Hall, 1981 {{ISBN|0-13-822122-7}}.
* {{cite conference |last1=Boehm |first1=Barry |author-link1=Barry Boehm |title=Software Risk Management |book-title=Proceedings of 2nd European Software Engineering Conference |editor1-last=Ghezzi |editor1-first=C. |editor2-last=McDermid |editor2-first=J. A. |conference=ESEC'89 |series=[[Lecture Notes in Computer Science|LNCS]] |volume=387 |date=1989 |pages=1–19 |issn=0302-9743 |doi=10.1007/3-540-51635-2_29 |isbn=3-540-51635-2 |author-mask=1}}
* 1996. ''Ada and Beyond: Software Policies for the Department of Defense''. National Academy Press.
* 2000. ''Software Cost Estimation with COCOMO II''. B. Boehm, C. Abts, A. W. Brown, S. Chulani, B. Clark, E. Horowitz, R. Madachy, D. Reifer, B. Steece. Upper Saddle River, NJ : Prentice-Hall, 2000 {{ISBN|0-13-026692-2}}.
* 2007. ''Software engineering: Barry Boehm's lifetime contributions to software development, management and research.'' Ed. by Richard Selby. Wiley/IEEE press, 2007. {{ISBN|0-470-14873-X}}.
* 2004. ''Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed''. With Richard Turner. Pearson Education, Inc 2004 {{ISBN|0-321-18612-5}}.
* 2014. ''The Incremental Commitment Spiral Model: Principles and Practices for Successful Systems and Software.'' B. Boehm, J. Lane, S. Koolmanojwong, R. Turner. Addison-Wesley Professional, 2014. {{ISBN|0-321-80822-3}}.

;Articles
* 1996. "Anchoring the Software Process",. In: ''IEEE Software'', July 1996.
* 1997. "Developing Multimedia Applications with the WinWin Spiral Model," with A. Egyed, J. Kwan, and R. Madachy. In: ''Proceedings, ESEC/FSE 97 and ACM Software Engineering Notes'', November 1997.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Barry W. Boehm}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://csse.usc.edu/new/barry-w-boehm Barry Boehm home page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130924113019/http://csse.usc.edu/new/barry-w-boehm |date=2013-09-24 }}
* [http://www.isr.uci.edu/icse-06/program/keynotes/boehm.html "A View of 20th and 21st Century Software Engineering"] — talk by Barry Boehm

{{Software engineering}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boehm, Barry}}
[[Category:1935 births]]
[[Category:2022 deaths]]
[[Category:American computer scientists]]
[[Category:1997 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery]]
[[Category:Fellows of the IEEE]]
[[Category:Harvard College alumni]]
[[Category:American software engineers]]
[[Category:Software engineering researchers]]
[[Category:University of Southern California faculty]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni]]
[[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering]]