It has been observed that the challenge of improving software productivity and quality is not just to “do the thing right” but to “do the right thing right.” Doing the right thing means building products and services that meet real customer needs. Specification is the first step in deriving system design from an understanding of customer needs. Technology to support software specification can, therefore, provide productivity and quality benefits that accrue through the entire product life cycle. Prototyping is an approach to system design in which a model of the system is quickly built and iteratively refined so as to become increasingly realistic. Experience with the evolving prototype leads to an improved understanding of system functionality, dynamics, and performance so that the resulting products and services are known to match customer needs before they are built. This article describes two promising approaches—software architecture modeling and application‐oriented languages—for improving software development productivity and quality through support for software specification and prototyping.

Increasing demand for advanced voice‐and‐facsimile network services has motivated the recent introduction of an important, new, programmable network element: AT&T's A‐I‐Net™ service‐circuit node. This new network element complements existing network switching and database elements by providing internal network access to a programmable node that has highly specialized service circuits. These circuits support network services that involve the synthesis, interpretation, repetition, or translation of voiceband information. Although the central‐office and operations‐support interfaces we describe are designed for the United States market, the service‐circuit node provides a flexible base for supporting interfaces that are appropriate for other markets, too. As service‐circuit technology continues to advance to support complex, image‐processing functions (e.g., facsimile or speaker recognition), service providers will require greater flexibility for developing services that use these functions. An applications‐development environment, based on application‐oriented‐language technology, enables service providers to introduce new capabilities rapidly into existing networks.

Facilitating the creation of new services by an end user or network provider as required for Universal Information Services (UIS) requires new software capabilities. New software technology and design approaches will be required to support these capabilities. This article describes two promising approaches for providing customer programmability: component‐oriented software and application‐oriented languages. Component‐oriented software packages software into units that can be independently developed, tested, installed, and maintained, providing a means of isolating customer‐developed software from other software in the system. Application‐oriented languages provide a high‐level programming environment in which new services can be developed without extensive knowledge of the existing software. It also limits the functionality that the programmer can modify to a specific functional area. These approaches have the potential to support UIS customer programmability.

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