Critical Code Software Producibility for Defense (2010) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
1 Recognize the Pivotal Role of DoD Software Innovation
1 Recognize the Pivotal Role of DoD Software Innovation
Pages 17-44
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 17... ...
Task Force on Mission Impact of Foreign Influence on DoD Software, which explored the essential role of software in defense, released its report in September 1 Defense Science Board (DSB) , September 2007, Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Mission Impact of Foreign Influence on DoD Software, Washington, DC: Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics.
|
From page 18... ...
This echoes a judgment expressed in many other studies that have considered the role of software in defense.8 The report further notes, however, that "each year the Department of Defense depends more on software for its administration and for the planning and execution of its missions," 6 DSB, September 2007, Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Mission Impact of Foreign Influence on DoD Software , Wash ington, DC: Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. Available online at http://stinet.
|
From page 19... ...
The percentage of system functions performed by software has risen from 8 percent of the F-4 in 1960, to 45 percent of the F-16 in 1982, to 80 percent of the F-22 in 2000.11 Software has become essential to all aspects of military system capabilities and operations, and software-specific investment is critical to them.12 Macroeconomic data show analogous growth in the role software plays in the commercial world. This is significant because commercial vendors are key contributors to the defense software supply chain -- for Future Combat Systems,13 for example, 27 million source lines of code (more than 42 percent 9 DSB, September 2007, Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Defense Software , p.
|
From page 20... ...
These design-focused software capabilities can save millions of dollars -- all before the first piece of metal is bent. But perhaps even more importantly, in these early stages this software capability enables the cus tomer to focus on driving out risks related to the definition of weapons and systems functionality and 14 DSB, September 2007, Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Mission Impact of Foreign Influence on DoD Software , Washington, DC: Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, p.
|
From page 21... ...
Fourth, interconnection introduces new information security challenges. Software Supply Chains The growth in the role of software, as described above, is enabled in part by a surprisingly recent phenomenon in IT, which is the diversification and enrichment of the supply-chain structure for IT systems.
|
From page 22... ...
The emergence of generally accepted ecosystem structures has in recent years become one of the enablers of the growth in richness in the supply-chain structure for software systems, which in the commercial world has promoted a diversity of suppliers, growth of a market for specialists in com ponent-level innovation, and tools geared to development productivity for particular ecosystems. A 18 DSB, September 2007, Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Mission Impact of Foreign Influence on DoD Software, Wash ington, DC: Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics.
|
From page 23... ...
(See Boxes 1.2 and 1.3 for elaboration on the concept and role of ecosystems.) Not only are engineering risks reduced for precedented developments, but also there are benefits from the richness of the supply chain due to network effects -- the positive externalities associated with systems adoption.19 When an ecosystem is successful, the commonalities of structures and interfaces enable larger numbers of organizations to participate efficiently in the development of large systems, providing software components, libraries, frameworks, plug-ins, custom elements, and so on.
|
From page 24... ...
or using the Windows-based .NET Framework, which supports multiple programming languages sharing com mon runtime services related to memory management, security, etc. In web applications, there are also open source ecosystems, one of which is the so-called LAMP stack, which comprises the Linux operating system, the widely adopted Apache web server, the MySQL relational database, and scripting in a language starting with the letter "P," most usually PHP, Python, or Perl.
|
From page 25... ...
, and so on. This is one of the enablers and sustainers of the global supply chain.
|
From page 26... ...
"One size fits all" models -- even for incremental iterative developments -- can be dangerous. 20 Because of the extent to which modern software builds on existing ecosystem and infrastructural elements, modern software development processes entail activities that go well beyond the design and authoring of new code.
|
From page 27... ...
As noted above, these ecosystems are enabled by a wide range of computer science and software engineering advances. The modern software application frameworks essential to Web-based systems, ecommerce, and graphical user interfaces of all kinds are enabled by the same advances in programming language design that led to languages such as Java, C#, and Ada95.
|
From page 28... ...
, 2006, Ultra-Large-Scale Systems: The Software Challenge of the Future , Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University. Available online at http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/assets/ULS_Book20062.pdf.
|
From page 29... ...
Commercial Software Supply Chains The DoD's supply chain has become increasingly complex. One driver has been the commercial success of software ecosystems that provide a foundation on which to build defense systems.
|
From page 30... ...
DoD Software Supply Chains The DoD is aggressively applying these ideas for business applications. In the case of IT systems and components such as databases, operating systems, and business systems applications, the DoD can align well with commercial products being produced to support industry.
|
From page 31... ...
The DoD depends not only on the ability to develop new code, but also on commercial software capability, particularly as manifested in established evolving software ecosystems. Software supply chains are growing in scale, complexity, and geography, and the influence of these shifts on DoD software must be considered.
|
From page 32... ...
The committee believes this approach, particularly in topics related to software production gen erally (rather than, for example, the production of software for particular applications) , is likely to lead to significant over-reporting of application software development projects as SDP or HCSS research.)
|
From page 33... ...
Figure 1.5.1 3,000.0 2,500.0 2,000.0 Dollars in Millions Agencies OSD/DISA/svcs 1,500.0 NIST NASA DOE/NNSA 1,000.0 DARPA NSA NSF 500.0 0.0 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Year Figure 1.5.2 Total NITRD investment by agency and by year. NOTE: OSD, DISA, and Service investments have been rolled up into a single category that covers defense agency investments other than those in DARPA Figure 1.5.2 and NSA.
|
From page 34... ...
Figure 1.5.3 security systems of all kinds make this kind of shift much more consequential for defense software producibility and for U.S. ability to advance overall defense system capability.
|
From page 35... ...
The DoD faces new challenges to addressing the risks associated with diverse and international supply chains, including the development of practices and technologies for software assurance.
|
From page 36... ...
Commercial IT firms also invest in software research and form an important part of the defense IT supply chain, but may not necessarily carry out research aimed at meeting the DoD's needs. Both defense and commercial IT firms lack strong incentives to invest directly in broad-impact areas such as these, particularly when many of the advantages derived from the investment are nonappropriable, in that the associated intellectual property cannot be readily controlled and as a conse quence the benefits may readily diffuse not only into the supply chain for the contractor but also to competitors (more on this point is given below)
|
From page 37... ...
30 For quite a few years, about two-thirds of global revenues in the software industry have actually been from services (such as custom software development, maintenance, IT consulting, and technical support) , and only one-third of revenues have come from the product companies.
|
From page 38... ...
Other dimensions of cybersecurity are conse quential but not within the scope of this report -- these were discussed at length in the 2007 DSB Task Force report Mission Impact of Foreign Influence on DoD Software.36 The second shift has been the reduction over the past decade of direct DoD investment in advancing software capability within the defense industrial base and its supply chain (see Box 1.5)
|
From page 39... ...
needs more and more to be augmented by direct, artifact-focused means to support acceptance evaluation. The DSB Task Force rec ommends more effective direct evaluation by consuming organizations throughout the software supply chain, including better ways for producers to create software for which direct evidence of critical quality 40 DSB, September 2007, Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Mission Impact of Foreign Influence on DoD Software, Wash ington, DC: Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics.
|
From page 40... ...
is less a matter of fine-tuning than an innovation 42 DSB, September 2007, Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Mission Impact of Foreign Influence on DoD Software, Washington, DC: Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. Available online at http://stinet.
|
From page 41... ...
(The performance of software has been enabled by the development of new algorithms, by advances in hardware, and by simplification and rescoping of the computational problems being solved.) Similar observations apply to software ecosystems.
|
From page 42... ...
Available online at http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/ Fortran/102663114.05.01.acc.pdf. Last accessed August 10, 2010.
|
From page 43... ...
The committee's analysis suggests that this is not necessarily the case, and in Chapter 2, the committee considers the means by which the engineering risks associated with innova tive projects can be mitigated incrementally, thus potentially reducing the cost and project completion risk without overly compromising functionality. Conclusions Regarding Software Innovation The committee draws several conclusions from these observations regarding software capability improvement.
|
From page 44... ...
These include, for example, software assurance, ultra-scale architecture, concurrency (multi-core and distributed) , framework design, programming language improvements for assurance and scale, concepts for "big data" systems, and so on.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.