NEFF@SIERRA.STANFORD.EDU (Randall B. Neff) (11/16/87)
This is from Electronics, Nov 12, 1987, page 121, in the column Military/Aerospace Newsletter. Task Force Slams DOD for Bungling Military Software Efforts The Defense Department's efforts in software development are disjointed, uncoordinated, and lack support, charges the Defense Science Board's Task Force on Military Software. The task force reports it "is convinced that today's major problems with military software are not technical problems, but management problems." It lambastes the DOD for having "not provided the vital leadership needed" in Stars, the Software Technology for Adaptable Reliable Systems. It complains that Ada, the high-level programming language the DOD is pushing to make a standard for all military systems, "has been overpromised." It warns that "the Strategic Defense Initiative has a monumen- tal software problem" and that "no program to address the software problem is evident." To solve the management problem, the task force urges the DOD to bring together Stars, Ada, and the Software Engineering Institute under the Air Force Electronic Systems Division. It also wants representatives from the three programs and from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Strategic Computing Initiative to produce a "one-time joint plan to demon- state a coordinated DOD Software Technology Program." What does the DOD have to say? Not much just yet. Officials of the Ada Program office did not respond to calls, and a Darpa spokesman would say only that the agency "has no plans to implement any of the changes that the report recommends" at this point but will take them under consideration. -------