IBM took NPL as a starting point and completed the design to a level that the first compiler could be written: the NPL definition was incomplete in scope and in detail. Control of the PL/I language was vested initially in the New York Programming Center and later at the IBM UK Laboratory at Hursley. The SHARE and GUIDE user groups were involved in extending the language and had a role in IBM's process for controlling the language through their PL/I Projects. The experience of defining such a large language showed the need for a formal definition of PL/I. A project was set up in 1967 in IBM Laboratory Vienna to make an unambiguous and complete specification. This led in turn to one of the first large scale Formal Methods for development, VDM.