Over 2,700 persons attended the STC. There were 12 tutorials covering subjects such as process improvement, Ada 9X, Inspections, Reengineering, and Metrics. There were 141 exhibitors and over 75 exhibitor presentations including one by Jim Reed of the DACS and there were eleven technical tracks over two and one-half days.
The first days plenary session was conducted by Major General Stephen Condon (USAF) with distinguished featured speakers from the services to include: Lt. General Carl O'Berry (USAF), Lt. General Otto Guenther (USA), and Rear Admiral John Hekman (DoN). Grady Booch gave the keynote and Capers Jones talked about function points and other software engineering issues. Mr. Orton, U.S. Congress (Utah), discussed congressional interest in software, specifically a congressional caucus that he is involved in on information technology.
In the Metrics track there were several notable presentations. Andrew Chruscicki of the Rome Laboratory described a concept for the National Software Data and Information Repository. Capers Jones talked about function points and contrasted the accuracy of function points with source lines of code as a means for comparing the productivity of software. Jack McGarry of the Naval Undersea Warfare Command described the draft Joint Logistics Commanders (JLC) developed Practical Software Measurement guidebook. At the conclusion of his presentation the guidebook was distributed to all attendees.
The conference was formally closed in a plenary session on Thursday, the 13th of April. On Friday, the 14th of April, there were 7 sponsored tracks and a workshop on Business Process Reengineering. The Thursday Plenary session was conducted by Mr. Lloyd Mosemann, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Communications, Computers, and Support Systems. It included a highly entertaining talk by General Bill Creech (USAF, Retired) on quality. There were also presentations by Dr. Ed Feigenbaum, Chief Scientist of the USAF on aspects of Artificial Intelligence, Tom McCabe President of McCabe Associates on Metrics, and John Marciniak of the DACS who discussed the National Software Council initiative.
The STC is the conference to attend if you are interested in software engineering practice and the practitioners point of view, particularly in the DoD. It presents a strong contrast to many conferences that focus on leading state of the art techniques of an exploratory nature, thus, it has a fresh, down to earth atmosphere.
The general sessions will be published in the following issues of CrossTalk. The CD-ROM is available at $45 for the USA and $50 for non-USA, plus shipping for non-conference attendees from Utah State University.
If you need further information about the STC, please contact:
Dallas Holmes
STSC
(801) 797-0039