An empirical evaluation of the impact of CASE on developer productivity and software quality

This paper presents the findings of research into the impact of computer aided software engineering (CASE) tools. It is based on a questionnaire survey of software developers in UK organizations. CASE had a positive effect on developer productivity and the quality of applications software. It particularly improved the reliability and accuracy of applications software, though this was sometimes offset by a deterioration in software efficiency. There was little evidence of productivity being 'traded' for quality, since developers citing productivity gains also tended to report quality improvements. The extent to which organizations were able to realize the benefits of CASE depended on the experience, competence and training of individual developers. This has significant implications for the selection and training of personnel and the use of consultants. Methodologically, the findings also serve to underline the importance of explicitly taking account of prior development environments, when using retrospective methods to evaluate different software technologies.