MITRE STUDY

  • “Ada in the Maintenance Arena,” Schrank, Boyce & Davis, MITRE, 1995

    • - Used Lockheed Martin’s Programmed Review of Information for Costing and Evaluation (PRICE) Software (PRICE-S) model
    - Examined military airborne avionics software
    - Used Capers Jones’ “function point” data base
              Compares equal functionality vice equal SLOC
    - Estimated 10-year maintenance cost for
              Ada
              C
              “Other HOL” (Pascal & FORTRAN)
    - Assumed experienced programmers and good tools

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From the Script: SLIDE 40 - MITRE Study

MITRE conducted a study in 1995 entitled, "Ada in the Maintenance Arena." This study was published at the USAF's Software Technology Conference in the Spring of 1995.

The study examined military airborne avionics software using Lockheed Martin's PRICE software model for costing and evaluation. Capers Jones' "function point" database was used to compare functionality rather than source lines of code. An estimate was generated for the 10-year maintenance cost for Ada, C, and "other HOLs", assuming experienced programmers with good tools.

The conclusions are shown on the next slide.