System development methodology or system research methodology?

Abstract

A future data processing historian may someday point to the 1970s as the deoade when business application systems began their adolescent growth period. We entered the 1970s with few truly on-line business systems, and many application designers did not fully appreciate the capabilities and limitation of index sequential file structures. Many of the larger companies were busy writing their own tp monitors and file handling systems, and it is very possible that more professional hours were being devoted to the development of control program software than to applications software. The last decade did provide the application programmer with new control program tools such as data base management systems and on-line terminal control software. It also generated a continuing demand for computer performance software specialists to tune application systems immediately after initial implementation. These performance tuning efforts often required substantial changes to the application system - not just program code but also basic redesign. Therefore were these really system development projects or were they system research projects?