Section 7 Conclusion It is important to make technology decisions at the right time and for the right reasons. Good business decisions provide good people with appropriate supporting tools so they can produce good products. When it comes to software development, dealing with tough language issues head-on is one requirement for today’s visionary manager. When combined with other software engineering considerations, a good language decision can support the development of cost-effective software systems that, in turn, provide valuable, reliable business support. Acknowledgments This work was partially sponsored by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). I would like to especially thank Joan McGarity, Don Reifer, and Chuck Engle for exceptional support and encouragement, as well as for finding reviewers with good comments and suggestions for improvements. Thanks go to Brad Balfour and Karyl Adams for their valuable insights, which significantly improved the SASEA decision process. I would like to thank the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) and members of its staff – Doug Colonel, Bobbi Smith, Carol Hoffman, and Bill Orr – who have worked to provide an automated tool to support the SASEA process. I would also like to thank Millie Richardson and Kathy Mark for their significant contributions to the overall quality of this document. About the Author Patricia K. Lawlis is President of c.j. kemp systems, inc., a small software engineering consulting company. She received a Ph.D. in software engineering from Arizona State University in 1989 and retired from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel in 1995. Her experience includes work in many areas of software engineering, including software development in many different computer languages. She spent ten years on the faculty of the Air Force Institute of Technology, where she was involved with extensive research in developing an object-oriented software architecture for the visual simulation application domain. She has taught both mathematics and software engineering over a span of 30 years. Contact Pat at lawlis@aol.com.

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