Software Synthesis: The FAST Process

                Abstract


  A current trend in manufacturing is to design the manufacturing process and 
the product concurrently.  The goal is to make the product easy to produce by 
the manufacturing process.  Although software is not manufactured, the 
techniques needed to achieve the goal of easily producible software exist.  


  Just as with manufacturing, the problem is how to organize the software 
production process and the products to eliminate rework.  One solution, 
embodied in the FAST process, lies in viewing system production as creating 
different members of a family, rather than creating a new system each time 
requirements change.  Software developers should be able to take 
advantage of work done in previous developments, rather than restating 
requirements, reinventing design and code, and redoing testing.


Key to the process is finding the appropriate abstractions for the family, 
creating a language for describing them, and then translating descriptions of 
family members into deliverable software.  The family-oriented, 
abstraction, specification, and translation (FAST) process is a systematic 
process for doing so.  The goal is to create processes for  rapidly creating 
different members of a program family.  The approach is made feasible by using 
principles underlying design for change.  FAST incorporates ideas 
from rapid prototyping, application generators, and domain analysis, and is in 
trial use within AT&T. Early estimations show that its application may yield 
improvements in productivity of factors of two or three, and  will signficantly 
change how software developers do their jobs.

                Biography

David M. Weiss received the B.S. degree in Mathematics 
in 1964 from Union College, and the M.S. in Computer Science in 1974 
and the Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1981 from the University of
Maryland.  He is currently a distinguished member of the technical staff 
in the Software Production Research Department at AT&T Bell 
Laboratories, where he conducts research into methods and processes 
for improving the efficiency of software production.

Previously he was the Director of the Reuse and Measurement
Department of the Software Productivity Consortium.  This department 
was responsible for conducting the Consortium's program in reuse 
and measurement, including projects in empirical studies of reuse, 
domain analysis, systematic reuse, re-engineering, measurement, 
and verification.  Prior to joining the Software Productivity 
Consortium, Dr. Weiss spent a year at the Office of Technology 
Assessment, where he was co-author of a technology assessment of 
the Strategic Defense Initiative.  During the 1985-1986 academic year 
he was a visiting scholar at The Wang Institute.  During and prior to 
his appointment at the Wang Institute, he was a researcher at the 
Computer Science and Systems Branch of the Naval Research Laboratory 
(NRL).  He has also worked as a programmer and as a mathematician.

Dr. Weiss's  principal research interests are in the area of 
software engineering, particularly in software development 
methodologies, software design, and software measurement.

Dr. Weiss is convinced of the superiority of long distance running over 
all other forms of currently popular exercise programs.  In addition he 
is attracted to other symmetrical sports and exercise methods such as 
cross-country skiing and yoga.  A few times a year he can be found 
going rapidly downhill with a pair of skis strapped to his feet.  In 
spare moments he likes to talk to his wife and children and read 
science fiction.