Understanding the Adoption of Ada: A Field Study Report

Abstract

In 1983, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) established a policy requiring the use of Ada for the development of all new DOD mission-critical computer applications. A multi-industry field study was conducted with seven business units from DOD contractors that have made decisions about the adoption and use of Ada. This report examines the extent to which the Ada adoption behavior of these contractors is influenced by their expectations of the technological opportunity provided by Ada, market demand for Ada, and appropriability conditions in the product market of firms. Findings indicate contractor decisions about adopting Ada are influenced both by the technical merits of the language and the economic impact on the firm. Keywords: Ada programming language; Appropriability conditions; Costs of adoption; Market demand.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1989
Accession Number
ADA219188

Entities

People

  • Daniel A. Levinthal
  • Gordon N. Smith
  • Wesley M. Cohen
  • William E. Hefley

Organizations

  • Carnegie Mellon University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Application Software
  • C Programming Language
  • Commerce
  • Computer Languages
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Contractors
  • Debugging
  • Department Of Defense
  • Embedded Systems
  • High Level Languages
  • Jet Propulsion
  • Operating Systems
  • Programming Languages
  • Software Development

Readers

  • Life Cycle Cost Analysis
  • Software Verification and Validation.
  • Systems Analysis and Design