Oral history interview with Kenneth W. Kolence

Abstract

Software industry pioneer Kenneth W. Kolence begins by discussing his time as maintenance and operations head on the UNIVAC for the Navy; his work setting up the operations organization and scheduling procedures for the engineering programming efforts at RCA; his tenure at North American Aviation developing process design and instrumentation time; and his joining Control Data Corporation to work on integrated management and design processes, SW product concepts, and performance measurement tool prototyping. Much of the interview concentrates on Kolence’s co-founding of K & K Associates, which was soon renamed Boole & Babbage, the first software company in Silicon Valley. Other topics include Boole & Babbage’s competition with IBM, and the founding 1968 NATO Software Engineering Conference.