Chapter 3
Ada 95 Adoption Risks:Analysis and Mitigation

• Introduction
• Project Planning Impacts and the Transition to Ada 95
• Tools and Environment Related Risks
• Upward Compatibility Risks
• Technology Transfer Related Risks
• Software Development Methodologies
• COTS, Legacy Software, and Multi-Language Software Development
• The Transition Process and Personnel Risks

Ada 95 brings many opportunities to projects, including the ability to better integrate Ada into multi-language efforts; newer, more effective real-time primitives; and support for object-oriented programming. No opportunity, however, is without risk. Many of these risks are common to any programming language, while some are unique to Ada 95.

This chapter divides these risks into seven major categories, describes them, and offers techniques to mitigate those risks. Each subsection in this chapter treats the risks and mitigation techniques in an issues- and answers-based forum. The seven categories are:

• Project Planning Risks

• Tools and Environment Related Risks

• Upward Compatibility Risks

• Technology Transfer Related Risks

• Software Development Methodologies

• COTS, Legacy Software, and Multi-Language Development

• The Adoption Process and Personnel Risks

The opportunities, issues, and risks related to software acquisition and contracting are found in Chapter 5.

This chapter addresses the risks for software acquisition organizations and software development groups (e.g., CDAs and SDCs) in an integrated fashion. Since this chapter does not focus on the life-cycle, the differences between the risks for contracted development and in-house development are minimal and, where present, will be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

In referring to acquisition organizations, the chapter uses the term PM Office to refer to the Government and the term contractor to refer to organizations hired to perform the work. In referring to development organizations, the chapter uses the term developer to refer to both the management and technical teams. When concepts apply equally to both groups, the term contractor/developer is used.

Since each technology opportunity brings its own risks, PEOs and PMs should continue to use standard tested risk management techniques* (both risk assessment and risk mitigation) to gain an understanding of the major risks that may be associated with the adoption of a new technology such as Ada 95. See Figure 3 for definitions.


Figure 3: Risk Management Technique Definitions

In this chapter the general techniques discussed in Figure 3 are specifically adapted to Ada 95 adoption issues. This chapter provides PEOs and PMs with a concise set of risk-oriented issues and answers.

Each section in this chapter begins with a table. This table summarizes each section, including the opportunities Ada 95 brings, the major risks, and the actions needed to mitigate those risks. There is not a one-to-one mapping of the table to the subsections that follow -- although all of the information in the table is discussed in detail later.

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