Engineering Software Under Statistical Quality Control
IEEE Software
Cost-Effective Analysis of In-Place Software Processes
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
Tailoring Cleanroom for Industrial Use
IEEE Software
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The US Army first attempted to improve these processes using Cleanroom methods at its Life Cycle Software Engineering Center at Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey. The Center provides several software support services for Army battlefield-automated-systems. The Army's desire for process improvement resulted in part from a software-process assessment conducted by a team of representatives from the Army Materiel Command, with coaching from the Software Engineering Institute. Center management reviewed these findings and realized that their then-current software-engineering activities lacked control. Working without an organizational mandate, participants could only perpetuate their experience on a personal level, by carrying it forward from one project to the next. Because no defined process existed for maintaining continual project control, common practice consisted of typical, ad hoc, software-engineering techniques instead of a disciplined and defined software-engineering process. The project we describe in this article resulted from discussions between Picatinny Arsenal and the US Department of Defense's Software Technology for Adaptable, Reliable Systems program management and was the first to put STARS concepts into practice.The Department of Defense's software-support activities provided opportunities to demonstrate STARS successful efforts at improving software quality and productivity. These activities represent a major portion of the Department of Defense's software budget. The proportion of the budget allocated to these activities will likely increase during the next decade as the many systems in the development pipeline are turned over to software-support organizations for maintenance. It is likely that, as fewer new systems come into the inventory, Department of Defense managers will attempt to extend the useful life of old systems through software enhancements and re-engineering. We anticipate that Cleanroom techniques will play an increasing role in this process.