Software Engineering Institute (SEI)

Abstract

Software is a key to meeting the Department of Defense's (DoD’s) increasing demand for high-quality, affordable, and timely national defense systems. Systemic software issues are significant contributors to poor program execution, and reliance on software-intensive mobile and net based products and systems has been increasing (for example (e.g.), Joint Tactical Radio System, USS ZUMWALT (DDG-1000), Joint Strike Fighter, F-22, and Army Modernization). As stated in the 2010 National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences report entitled Critical Code, “It is dangerous to conclude that we are reaching a plateau in capability and technology for software producibility.” The report notes that software is “…unconstrained by traditional physical engineering limitations…” and what we can accomplish is derived “…from [the] human intellectual capacity to conceptualize and understand systems….” With growing global parity in software engineering, the DoD must maintain leadership to avoid strategic surprise. The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Program Element (PE) addresses the critical need to research, develop, and rapidly transition state-of-the-art software technology, tools, development environments, and best practices to improve the engineering, management, fielding, evolution, acquisition, and sustainment of software-intensive DoD systems. The SEI’s program of work coordinates across the Department through Reliance 21, the overarching framework of the DoD’s Science and Technology (S&T) joint planning and coordination process. This PE directly benefits these DoD S&T Communities of Interest (COI): Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence (C4I); Autonomy; Cyber; and Engineered Resilient Systems. Additionally, this PE benefits every COI to some degree due to the ubiquitous nature of software. This PE also leverages expertise in government, industry, and academia to enable the development of joint-Service capabilities. Software is more pervasive than ever and computer programs are growing in size and complexity. Designing, managing, and securing integrated, complex, and large-scale mission-critical systems are abilities that the DoD and the Defense Industrial Base have not yet mastered. To address this, the PE funds research and development within the SEI Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) and, to access particular expertise, in the Services, industry, and academia. The SEI FFRDC is the DoD’s dedicated source for software research and development. It is an institute which enables the exploitation of emerging software technology by bringing engineering, management, and security discipline to software acquisition, development, and evolution. The SEI FFRDC focuses on software technology areas judged to be of the highest payoff in meeting defense needs. Private sector investment has created rapid advances in information technologies, but the pace of transition to DoD applications is often very slow or the commercial applications do not meet DoD unique needs, e.g., high assurance software or large-scale integrated systems. The DoD needs to create opportunities to discover emerging technologies, to evaluate their potential to fit DoD needs, and where appropriate, conduct critical tests of the technologies under DoD conditions. The Software Producibility Initiative, project P783, works across the Services, industry, and academia to research and transition software science and tools that address the capacity to design, produce, assure, and evolve software-intensive systems in a predictable manner while effectively managing risk, cost, schedule, quality, and complexity.

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Document Details

Document Type
R2 Budgetary Justification
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2016
Source ID
0603781D8Z_3_0400_PB_2016
Change Summary Explanation
Funding decreases were used to pay for higher priority DoD bills.
Service Agency Name
Office of the Secretary Of Defense

Entities

Organizations

  • Office of the Secretary of Defense

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Cyber
  • Electronic Warfare
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Application Software
  • Computer Network Security
  • Computer Networks
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Department Of Defense
  • Engineering
  • Information Systems
  • Insider Threats
  • Military Research
  • Models
  • Software Development
  • Systems Engineering
  • Uss Zumwalt

Fields of Study

  • Computer science
  • Engineering

Readers

  • Defense Technology Research and Development.
  • Military Science and Technology Research and Modernization.
  • Software Engineering.

Technology Areas

  • Cyber
  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control

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