Putting Teeth into Open Architectures: Infrastructure for Reducing the Need for Retesting

Abstract

The Navy is currently implementing the open-architecture framework for developing joint interoperable systems that adapt and exploit open-system design principles and architectures. This raises concerns about how to practically achieve dependability in software-intensive systems with many possible configurations when: (1) the actual configuration of the system is subject to frequent and possibly rapid change, and (2) the environment of typical reusable subsystems is variable and unpredictable. Our preliminary investigations indicate that current methods for achieving dependability in open architectures are insufficient. Conventional methods for testing are suited for stovepipe systems and depend strongly on the assumptions that the environment of a typical system is fixed and known in detail to the quality-assurance team at test and evaluation time. This paper outlines new approaches to quality assurance and testing that are better suited for providing affordable reliability in open architectures, and explains some of the additional technical features that an Open Architecture must have in order to become a Dependable Open Architecture.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 30, 2007
Accession Number
ADA493708

Entities

People

  • M. Rodriguez
  • Valdis A. Berzins

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Cyber
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Business Administration
  • Command And Control
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Control Systems
  • Information Systems
  • Infrastructure
  • Open System Architecture
  • Operating Systems
  • Performance Tests
  • Programming Languages
  • Software Design
  • Software Testing
  • Systems Engineering
  • Test And Evaluation

Fields of Study

  • Computer science
  • Engineering

Readers

  • Distributed Systems and Data Platform Development
  • Software Engineering
  • Software Engineering.