I was wondering this weekend, "What was the first software development methodology?"

Luckily, somebody significantly more determined than myself already did the hard work. Dr. David F. Rico has identified a timeline of software development methodologies, at least in broad strokes.

My favorite part of this paper is how he broke down each methodology into the Era and identified Market Conditions that surrounded each methodology. While reading the list I laughed at the fact that the first two methodologies, Flowcharting and Structured Design, were aimed at fighting unreadable and complex programs.

Good thing we got that out the way early on…

To read the whole paper, visit http://ww.davidfrico.com/rico04e.pdf. Chock full of great history and insight into the biggest challenges facing programmers at the time.

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