Technology transfer of the Computer-Aided Prototyping System (CAPS)

Abstract

The inability of the Department of Defense (DOD) to accurately and completely specify requirements for hard real-time software systems has resulted in poor productivity, schedule overruns, and software that is unmaintainable and unreliable. The Computer-Aided Prototyping System (CAPS) provides a capability to quickly develop functional prototypes to verify feasibility of system requirements early in the software development process. It was built to help program managers and software engineers rapidly construct software prototypes of proposed software systems. CAPS was developed by the Software Engineering Group at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, California. This thesis investigates the transfer of technology of CAPS from NPS to DoD and the commercial industry. The effective transfer of technology requires user awareness of the technology and the ability to utilize the technology. Thus, a strategy is prepared for implementing the technology transfer of CAPS at NPS. To aid in this implementation, the quality and effectiveness of existing CAPS technical documentation is evaluated and recommendations for enhancement provided. Information dissemination materials are developed as part of this thesis which include three levels of CAPS briefings to potential sponsors, a home page, and a CD-ROM multimedia presentation. The implementation of this strategy will not only maximize the transfer of technology to the users, but also provide the optimum use of DoD software engineering resources available