What Software Development Looked Like in 1989: A 33‑Year Veteran’s Story

Since 1989 I have made a living in the software industry. I started as a technical writer at Application Computing Devices (ACD) in Terre Haute, Indiana, writing paper manuals for complex telephone network management software used by AT&T, US Sprint, GTE (now Verizon) and regional Bell operators.

My first job paid $23,000 a year (about $54,000 today). I quickly discovered a passion for writing and explaining high‑tech software to customers.

How the software industry worked back then

Software was delivered on magnetic tape or floppy disks; CD‑ROMs were still years away. Languages such as C/C++, FORTRAN, Pascal, Ada, Perl, Tcl, Lisp, and Smalltalk were common, while Java, JavaScript and .NET did not exist.

Support teams carried the load

Customers paid the full price up‑front and owned the software forever, but major upgrades required additional fees. Most customers never installed new versions promptly, saying “the version we have works fine,” which created a nightmare for support teams.

Terrifying long‑cycle projects

The prevailing SDLC was waterfall: months of requirements gathering, design, coding, and testing. Projects were managed with massive Gantt charts on walls, and any change forced a complete replanning.

Testers’ nightmare

When code reached QA, hundreds of bugs overwhelmed testers, leading to delayed releases and “quick‑track” patches that customers learned to avoid until the real fix arrived.

Poor working environment

ACD’s stack ran on two UNIX variants (Ultrix and AIX) on large, cold RISC minicomputers. Power outages were frequent, machines took hours to boot, and remote work was impossible.

Outdated technology and equipment

Engineers used VT100 terminals, later upgraded to expensive graphics terminals for X‑Windows. The author’s desk featured a System 6 Macintosh II with 8 MB RAM running Interleaf for documentation.

Homogeneous team culture

The team was all white, under 35, with no diversity; the only known LGBTQ+ member was a trusted colleague.

Rigid hierarchy

Titles were limited to Software Engineer and Senior Software Engineer, with senior status requiring 10‑15 years of experience.

Despite the challenges, the author loved working at ACD. A conflict with US Sprint over unresolved bugs led to a desperate workaround: shipping a blank tape with a letter, then quickly sending the corrected tape just before the deadline, which saved the company.