p. 32
“

Like many fields in their early stages, the software field has had its share of project disasters: the software equivalents of Beauvais Cathedral, the S.S. Titanic, and the "Galloping Gertie" Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The frequency of these disaster projects is a serious concern: a recent survey of 600 firms indicated that 35% of them had at least one "runaway' software project.

— Barry Boehm

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Like many fields in their early stages, the software field has had its share of project disasters: the software equivalents of Beauvais Cathedral, the S.S. Titanic, and the "Galloping Gertie" Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The frequency of these disaster projects is a serious concern: a recent survey of 600 firms indicated that 35% of them had at least one "runaway' software project." in the context of "p. 32" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Barry Boehm" (Quotes, Software risk management: principles and practices (1991): Boehm, Barry W. "Software risk management: principles and practices." Software, IEEE 8.1 (1991): 32-41.) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Barry Boehm

About Barry Boehm

Barry W. Boehm (May 16, 1935 – August 20, 2022) was an American software engineer, TRW Emeritus Professor of Software Engineering at the Computer Science Department of the University of Southern California, and known for his many contributions to software engineering.