Advancing Software Producibility

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Brownstein - CNS-0541636Advancing Software ProducibilityThis National Academies study is supported by the Office of the Secretary of Defense and conducted under the oversight of the National Science Foundation. The study will bring together academic and industry researchers, software and software tool vendors, and DoD system integrators to assess the emerging situation with respect to the national investment in and organization of software research, the state of the tools available to the DoD development and user communities, and the human resource and economic issues for the future. Today's successes with information technology derive from historic investments in software research and development, which resulted in the methods, tools and skill base for creating, using, and maintaining today's civilian and military software systems. Yet the software development process is under stress in both civilian and military arenas. Software is a critical component of success for defense systems. Software-intensive systems are enabling unparalleled military readiness and war-fighting capability. Demands on military software are expected to grow, based on military strategy and planning expectations that tomorrow's software-based systems will continue to further extend existing military capabilities and enable wholly new ones. Increasingly demanding requirements, significant consequences for software failures, and growth in size and complexity all magnify the inadequacy of existing engineering tools and methods. This affects cost, timely deployment, and the functional adequacy of weapons systems. This study will assess new requirements for software research for emerging weapons systems, including the development of models, tools, and approaches for testing and using them throughout the software systems lifecycle, from research through development to maintenance of deployed systems. The primary focus of the study will be on military software, but much of what is learned will be applicable to non-military government and private sector contexts as well, where issues of human resources, cost, timely deployment, reliability, security, and maintainability are persistent challenges in our increasingly information technology-dependent world.The study group will make recommendations to responsible agency, executive branch and legislative officials, and to the broader software community, about how to improve the present state of affairs and achieve future goals.