Contracting in the Software Engineering Crisis
Abstract
The Department of Defense (DoD) is currently experiencing extremely serious problems with Software Engineering. As weapons systems become increasingly more dependent upon the software programs which they employ, it becomes evermore apparent that DoD projects are consistently late and over budget because of software. To this end, software has become the dominant risk to cost and schedule and has caused the demise of more than a few DoD development projects. The DoD repeatedly demonstrates requisite experience to efficiently manage the development of hardware. Hardware development projects, for which the DoD readily implements tried and proven practices to systematically address all aspects of the development, are relatively risk free at their onset. Software development projects, on the other hand, are often times initiated without the benefit of similarly institutionalized methodologies and practices. Because an understanding of proper Software Engineering practice is only now developing, standard, well-accepted measures do not yet exist. The DoD seems only to be scratching at the surface of state-of-the-art software engineering and herein lies the basis of the problem.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA250241
Entities
People
- A. E. Jensen
- D. M. Bauman
Organizations
- Naval Command, Control and Ocean Surveillance Center