Software Engineering Institute

 The Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is researching the definition of complexity to determine what characteristics of avionics systems can be measured to help evaluate whether a system is capable of being certified as safe. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has asked the SEI to identify appropriate definitions of complexity for this purpose, then to identify possible measures and effects of complexity on aircraft safety. We are analyzing how complexity negatively affects avionics systems and aircraft safety so that we can focus on a small number of measures most important to the FAA.

After this session, you will understand the breadth of meanings of the term complexity and determine for yourself which meanings to include in your complexity-reduction effort. You will also understand what makes a good complexity measurement and how you might change or adapt the results that the SEI is considering for the FAA to your organization. Finally, you will learn where in your program complexity can be reduced or managed, using the kinds of data collected for the measurements.