Applying the Fundamentals of Quality to Software Acquisition
Author
Bygren, Steve
Carrier, Greg
Maher, Tom
Maurer, Patrick
Smiley, David
Spiewak, Rick
Sweed, Christine
Date
2017-03Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Historically, software developed under government contracts often does not stand up under real-world use, and defects frequently result in cost and schedule overruns. While proposed development activities from contractors commonly list measures to improve quality, these descriptions cannot be used to select a winning bidder if they are not part of the evaluation criteria. By making software quality requirements explicit at the proposal stage, contractor selection can be influenced by criteria based on best practices in software development. If we want to improve the quality of our software, a モQuality in Depthヤ approach is neededラintroducing quality-related measures at every stage of software acquisition. In a previous article, one of the authors provided recommendations for improving software quality at the construction phase (Spiewak & McRitchie, 2008). This article discusses how to apply these same principles to the source selection process. In order to find a way to include software practices as selection criteria, the authors set out to identify and recommend changes to Sections L and M of a government RFP (Request for Proposal) or IFPP (Instructions for Proposal Preparation) and EC (Evaluation Criteria) in an attempt to improve software and system quality. These changes will enable selection teams to identify contractors whose software development processes and compliance with software quality standards are more likely to produce the desired results.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.NPS Report Number
SYM-AM-17-048Collections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Dependable Software through a Holistic Framework of Tool Interoperability and Artifact Dependency
Luqi; Puett, J. (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2002-07); NPS-SW-02-006Objectives. The goal of this research is to develop a holistic framework for engineering dependable computing and communications software. The framework establishes collaborative mechanisms by which existing software ... -
Re-assigning homeports for United States Coast Guard medium and high endurance cutters
McCarty, Robert T (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 1997-09);The Cutter Assignment Model (CAM) is an optimization based decision aid that recommends relocation of cutters to homeports in order to maximize combined benefits less relocation costs. In 1996, the Chief of Coast Guard ... -
Total ownership cost - system software impacts
Naegle, Brad R. (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2017-04-19); NPS-CE-17-042Department of Defense (DoD) software-intensive systems and the software content in other systems will continue to grow and may dominate total ownership costs (TOC) in the future. These costs are exacerbated by the fact ...