Memorandum
To: Technical Communication (Eng 271) participants
From: Roland Nord
Date: July 28, 2016
Re: Documentation exercise 3—number style (Documentation3_key.doc)
The following exercise is based on the text and references in
Procaccino, J., Verner, J. and Lorenzet, S. Defining and contributing to software
development success. Commun. ACM 49, 8 (Aug. 2006), 79–83.
Read the explanatory information; then, modify the memo headings above, this
introductory section, and the page header; then, complete the exercise (the last section).
Save your file as Documentation3_y3i.doc (e.g., Documentation3_rdn.doc), replacing the
y3i with your three initials.
Citing sources in the article
In the body of the article, when Procaccino, Verner, and Lorenzet cite a source, they
place a number (or numbers) in square brackets following the citation. The number
refers back to the source as listed in the references section. Communications of the ACM
requires that authors list their sources in alphabetical order, not the order in which they
are cited in article. Numbers typically, but not always, appear at the end of the sentence.
Note the following opening paragraphs:
The use of the traditional, and somewhat simplistic, definition of software project
success (completing a project that meets customer/user requirements on time and
within budget) has been an important factor affecting widely cited statistics of failed
projects (the Standish Group’s studies from the mid-1990s come to mind), which
can then be “…used as fear-based advertisements for consultant services or quick-fix
techniques/tools” [7]. Further, Linberg suggested this traditional definition of
project success “may be too narrowly defined and may create negative perceptions
about software developers” [7]. Some developers (programmers, database
developers, systems analysts) have even been unjustly characterized as “bumbling”
[5]. But, in fact, most software developers have an innately high need for
achievement and professional growth [8], and programmers in particular have a
“…general need to create things, particularly things that other people will find
useful” [3].
We have turned to the practice of developing software from the perspective of
developers in order to arrive at a more insightful definition of project success since
they are at the core of development work [3, 4].
Your Name
Documentation exercise 3
Page 2
Listing bibliographical entries
Authors using a number system typically have two choices for listing their sources:

to list their sources in the order in which they are cited

to alphabetize their list of sources; then, to number the list
The publication for which you are writing will determine which style you follow. The
authors of the article cited above have arranged their sources in alphabetical order, then
numbered the sources; consequently the first source cited in the article is not the first
source listed in the references section.
Sample entries
I have reproduced the following entries from the article’s list of references:
1. Boehm, B.W. Software Engineering Economics. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1981.
2. Brady, S. and DeMarco, T. Management-aided software engineering. IEEE Software 11, 6
(Nov. 1994), 25–32.
3. Brooks, Jr., F.P. The Mythical Man-Month (Anniversary Edition). Addison-Wesley, Reading,
MA, 1995.
4. DeMarco, T. and Lister, T. Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams (2nd Edition). Dorset
House, New York, 1999.
5. Glass, R.L. Evolving a new theory of project success. Commun. ACM 42, 11 (Nov. 1999),
17.
Note that in this journal, titles of articles follow sentence capitalization; titles of journals
and books are italicized and follow title capitalization. Note some use of abbreviations in
journal titles.
Exercise
Using the bibliographic entries above as your guide, correct the following entries. Each
entry contains one or more errors.
6. Hackman, J.R. and G.R. Oldham. Work Redesign. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1980.
7. Linberg, K.R. Software Developer Perceptions about Software Project Failure: A Study.
The Journal of Systems and Software 49, 2/3 (Dec. 30, 1999), 177–192.
8. McConnell, S. 1996. Rapid development. Microsoft Press, Redmond, WA.
9. Reel, J.S. Critical success factors in software projects. IEEE Software 16, 3 (May/June
1999), 18 - 23.
10. Saarinen, T. An expanded instrument for evaluating information system success.
Information & Management 31, 2 (Nov 1996), 103–118.
11. Stamelos, I., Angelis, L., Dimou, P. and Sakellaris, E. On the use of Bayesian belief
networks for the prediction of software productivity. Information and software technology 45,
1 (Jan. 1, 2003), 51–60.