Software Engineering Institute

Software is a primary enabler of today’s military capabilities, and success in tactical operations is highly dependent upon reliable, effective, efficient, interoperable software. This presentation, given by James Wessel at the 2010 Systems & Software Technology conference (SSTC), focuses on successful software measurement practices that Army acquisition organizations find to be valuable for software issue identification, tracking, and active control of programs. Conducted on behalf of the Army Strategic Software Improvement Program (ASSIP), the study gathered information through a series of surveys and interviews within Army acquisition program management offices and software engineering centers. The objectives for the ASSIP measurement initiative are to:

• identify exceptional measurement practices within a subset of current army programs
• characterize the current state of program measurement within the Army
• quantify causal factors of software system acquisition issues that underlie chronic problems
•  make recommendations to the Army based on successful practices