In 1975 the Department of Defense started a “Common High Order Language” program. A working group set out to define what one programming language for the military should do. Its first draft of requirements, in April 1975, was called Strawman.
“The requirements were widely distributed for comment throughout the military and civil communities.” Each round produced a firmer version: Woodenman, Tinman, Ironman and finally Steelman, released in June 1978. The programming language built to these requirements became Ada.
The term is still used in American business. A “straw man proposal” is “a brainstormed simple draft proposal intended to generate discussion of its disadvantages.”