21st Century Processes for Acquiring 21st Century Software-Intensive Systems of Systems
Crosstalk: Journal of Defence Software Engineering, (May 2006)Abstract
Our experiences in helping to define, acquire, develop, and assess 21st century software-intensive systems of systems (SISOS) have taught us that traditional 20th century acquisition and development processes do not work well on such systems. This article summarizes the characteristics of such systems, and indicates the major problem areas in using traditional processes on them. We also present new processes that we and others have been developing, applying, and evolving to address 21st century SISOS. These include extensions to the risk-driven spiral model to cover broad (many systems), deep (many supplier levels), and long (many increments) acquisitions needing rapid fielding, high assurance, adaptability to high-change traffic, and complex interactions with evolving commercial off-the-shelf products, legacy systems, and external systems.