As applications became very large, the development of applications took the collaboration of many people. The programming process became error-prone and confusing. A crisis developed in the computer world. Errors were causing loss of money and eventually loss of life. In the case of the “Patriot missile error,” a rounding error caused an inaccurate quantity that ended up causing the death of US service personnel. With the increased use of computers, computer science was created as a field of study. The first computer science degree program in the United States was created at Purdue University in 1962. Computer scientists have created many programming languages over the years. These were designed to reduce errors and provide new functionality. Programming procedures have also been developed to improve readability and accuracy of the code. The field of software development emerged to manage the problems created by lack of communica- tion and management of these projects. Software Development Software development is the process of identifying a need, specifying the components for a solution, formulating a design, writing the programs, devel- oping documentation, writing test plans, executing the test plans, and repair- ing anomalies related to creating and maintaining software applications, data collection, or other software components. Notice that coding, or writing the programs, is only one of a series of steps in the process. Major considerations in software development involve the overarching demands of the project and the people who make up the software development team. FYI A report on the “Patriot missile error” can be found on the US Government Accountability website (www.gao.gov). Search for report number IMTEC-92-26. Public Domain Figure 1-7. Grace Murray Hopper was an early pioneer in computer science. One of her contributions was helping design the UNIVAC I system. She is shown here with her team working on the UNIVAC. Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Chapter 1 Computational Thinking 15