A Production Environment Evaluation of Interactive Programming.

Abstract : This report describes an evaluation of interactive programming versus batch programming within an actual software production environment at the U.S. Army computer Systems Command. The purpose of the study was to determine the productivity and cost effectiveness differences between the two modes of operation. The study was conducted in a production environment with the programmers completing their normally required workload and providing documentation on tasks routinely assigned to them. The results of this study indicate that on a line-of-code basis the interactive system offers an increase in productivity and a decrease in overall cost, as compared to the batch processing procedure. Continued support of the interactive system is recommended.