MOORE393.TXT Ada Information Clearinghouse, 1-800/AdaIC-11, 703/685-1477 RADM MOORE UPDATES ANCOAT CONFERENCE ON NAVY Ada INITIATIVES The 11th Annual National Conference on Ada Technology was held from March 15 to 18 in Williamsburg, Va., and on Thursday, the 18th, the Keynote Luncheon Presentation was given by RADM Robert M. Moore, SC, USN, Commander, Naval Information Systems Management Center. RADM Moore's remarks covered a wide range of current Navy initiatives and policies in the software field, and devoted a considerable portion to examples of how the Navy is putting to work its commitment to Ada and software engineering. Those comments gave ANCOAT attendees an overview of current Navy policy and initiatives regarding Ada, and we thought readers of the Ada Information Clearinghouse Newsletter would also benefit from them. An article in the May 1993 issue gave the text of RADM Moore's specifically Ada-related remarks. However, he also discussed a wider range of technology-related initiatives, and the text of his ANCOAT presentation in its entirety is given below. <> I am pleased to be here to discuss Ada and software-engineering initiatives within the Department of the Navy. I sincerely appreciate the invitation to address this body of the world's foremost Ada and software-engineering technologists, and the opportunity to share the Department of the Navy's progress in this important area. Today, we are going to focus on Ada as a building block of software engineering. The Department of the Navy believes that Ada and software engineering are critical technologies necessary to maintain the United States' capability as the premier military power. The pressure is on to do more with less. This is as it should be. I believe all of us are sensitive to the fact that there are limits on the proportion of our Gross National Product that can be wisely devoted to defense. Therefore, the Department of Defense is undergoing massive changes in its mission, its organization, its resources, and the technologies important to satisfying its requirements. In the past several decades, computer technology has played an important and increasing role in building systems which maintain our military superiority. However, the software to run these systems is continuously becoming more complex, more expensive, and takes longer to develop. At one time, it was the hardware that supported the mission; today, the hardware is rather generic, capable of supporting any mission; it is the software that provides the real functionality. We recognize the need to improve the process for developing and acquiring software systems. We recognize the importance of software engineering for developing and maintaining our systems. And we recognize Ada as an important, critical technology, necessary to support good software engineering. Certainly, good software engineering is possible without Ada; using Ada does not guarantee good software engineering; but Ada as a building block for software engineering does provide a real capability to develop high-quality, reliable systems to satisfy our mission in the fleet and to provide a real capability for support and maintenance over the entire system lifecycle. Ada and software engineering have been important to the Department of the Navy in the past; Ada and software engineering will become even more important in the future as we address the new challenges necessary to transition our military force from one capable of defeating a superpower to one capable of maintaining peace in an environment of unremitting third world confrontations. My remarks today are in four parts: First, I'll briefly describe the Department of the Navy's Ada Policy. Second, I'll discuss the Department of the Navy Ada Implementation Guide, which provides guidance to program managers for implementing Ada with software engineering within the Department of the Navy. Third, I'll discuss Ada training initiatives at both the Naval Academy and Naval Post Graduate School. Fourth, I'll discuss several Department of the Navy technology-related initiatives that I feel are important to a superior software-engineering capability in the future. These initiatives include: Software Process Improvement Plan Reuse Plan and Guide STARS Demonstration Project Data Administration Functional Process Improvement (FPI) TAC4 and TAC5 Procurements Software Engineering Institute Software Executive Officials Council <> The Department of the Navy has supported the use of Ada in the development of embedded weapon systems, known as Mission Critical Computer Resources (or MCCR systems) for many years. On 24 June 1991, Mr® Cann, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, signed an interim Department of the Navy policy on Ada. This policy, unlike the previous directives, required Ada to be used to develop all systems, both mission-critical computer resources (MCCR) and automated information systems (AIS), where cost effective -- in accordance with the Defense Appropriations Act. This policy statement also defined the concepts of an exception and a waiver to the Ada Policy. In brief, an exception was a policy approval to adopt an authorized non-Ada approach which required only limited justification and reporting. A waiver on the other hand was a process to request and get approval to deviate from the Ada policy that required a detailed justification to support. An example of an exception was the use of commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) that would neither be modified in function or maintained by the Department of the Navy. We have staffed a new Ada Programming Language Policy. This policy states that the Department of the Navy will use Ada for all new system developments and for all major software upgrades regardless of size, cost, or functional application. The use of the Ada Programming Language will be considered cost-effective for all new software development or modifications of more than one-third of a Computer Software Configuration Item. In such cases Ada must be used unless a waiver is requested and granted. Exclusions, as before, have been explicitly stated in the policy. They are: *commercially available off-the-shelf applications software that is not modified or maintained by the Department of Defense; *commercially available off-the shelf advanced software technology (AST) that is not modified or maintained by the Department of Defense; *computer programming languages required to implement vendor-provided updates to commercially supplied off-the-shelf-software -- use of such languages will be restricted to implementing the vendor's updates. This policy applies to all systems and software developed for the Department of the Navy. However the policy will not be required to be applied retroactively to systems that entered production and deployment as of June 1, 1991. <<1. Department of the Navy Ada Implementation Guide>> To assist Program Managers and their staffs transition to Ada and software engineering, the Department of the Navy has prepared an Ada Implementation Guide. This document has guidance in areas of Policy, Ada Implementation, Software Engineering Environments, Ada Technology Issues, Future Directions, and Lessons Learned. A second volume contains pointers to helpful sources, information on Ada bindings, sample Request for Proposal (RFP) wording, and detailed information on lessons learned. All parts of the document have been valuable to program managers planning for software development. The lessons-learned section is of special value as it allows program managers to be more keenly aware of risk areas so that these risks can be mitigated. The first version of the Ada Implementation Guide was released in March 1992. With rapid technology changes, it was recognized that periodic updates would be desirable. Consequently a Version Two of the Ada Implementation Guide will be available this summer. It will provide more detailed information with significant updates in all areas. The section on Lessons Learned will be enhanced with additional lessons learned. There will be a section addressing Ada and software-engineering training and a section addressing Ada's role in Open System Architectures. I would like to thank the Department of the Navy Ada Task Force for their support in developing this excellent document. The current version of the Ada Implementation Guide is available through the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) to government agencies and their contractors. <> The use of Ada and software engineering requires a commitment to training. Within the last year, we have made some progress in getting Ada to our midshipmen at the Naval Academy. To date, Ada compilers have been purchased, some faculty have been trained, with additional faculty training to take place this summer. Next fall, two courses in Ada will be offered at the Naval Academy, one in Ada-Based Algorithms, and one in Systems Design Using Ada. These courses will be mandatory for all Computer Science graduates the following year. <<..® and at the Naval Postgraduate School>> The Naval Postgraduate School has been a leader in software engineering with Ada for many years. The School uses Ada as the first programming language for students. It offers a complete sequence of software-engineering courses based on Ada, including data structures, software methodology, software engineering, real-time embedded military systems, and advanced software-engineering topics. Naval Postgraduate School students have successfully used Ada in many thesis projects such as: a Combat Direction System for the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), computer interfaces for the Naval Surface Warfare Command (NSWC), software process models for Naval Research and Development (NRaD), and many others. The first software-engineering textbook based on formal specifications for Ada software development from the Naval Post Graduate School has won an international reputation. The computer industry and academia have rated as "outstanding" the Postgraduate School's software-engineering program and the School's software tools for automatic Ada code generation. A thousand students have been trained in software engineering to handle Department of Defense needs. <> Professor Luqi, who leads the Ada teaching and research efforts at the Postgraduate School, received the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award from President Bush. She develops state-of-the-art research tools for automating Ada software development. Her research tool, CAPS (Computer-Aided Prototyping System) uniquely produces reliable Ada software at high speed and low cost, and has received national and international recognition. The CAPS project attacks the most critical problems in software development -- which include engineering databases, software reuse, and automatic program generation. Three out of thirty Naval Postgraduate School thesis students under the CAPS project have received the Grace Murray Hopper Award. Several Ada projects, including a generic C3 system for the Chief of Naval Operations, Patriot missile software, and a robot-control simulation system have been experimentally produced by Postgraduate School researchers using CAPS. CAPS has impressively demonstrated high productivity and reliability at low cost for Ada software development. <> Now I would like to discuss several Department of the Navy technology-related issues that I think are important. <<1. Department of the Navy Software Process Improvement Plan (SPI)>> SPI is premised on the Software Engineering Institute's (SEI's) Capability Maturity Model (CMM). The CMM is a five-level framework of key process areas. This framework characterizes the maturity which an organization has achieved in its software process. It is assumed that the maturity level of a development/maintenance organization has direct correlation to organization development capabilities. It is the goal of Department of the Navy to develop a program where all software development/maintenance organizations (organic and non-organic) undertake self-improvement programs targeted at raising their maturity level. Our Software Process Improvement Implementation Plan calls for the use of a Software Capability Evaluation (SCE) as part of the source-selection process for all new programs started FY94 and beyond. Two major Navy development activities are participating in a DoD-sponsored Software Process Assessment pilot program. These are the Navy Fleet Materiel Support Office (FMSO) and the Naval Command, Control, and Ocean Surveillance Center Research and Development (NRaD) Center. The FMSO assessment is completed. The NRaD assessments will begin in August. The most important benefit FMSO gained from this assessment was the intensification of the focus on the need for formal software process improvement. It provided the process, which led to formally identifying key areas throughout the organization which needed improvement and provided a baseline on which to measure future improvement. The resulting action plan will now allow FMSO to prioritize improvement efforts. <<2. Department of the Navy Reuse Plan>> The Department of Defense estimates that expenditures for developing and maintaining software for its weapons, command and control, and other automated information systems currently exceed $24 billion a year. In an attempt to better manage these costs and improve its ability to develop and maintain high-quality software, the Department of Defense has initiated a comprehensive effort to incorporate software-reuse practices into its software-development efforts. We believe that reuse is important and we are staffing a Department of the Navy Software Reuse Implementation Plan to establish a reuse infrastructure in the Department of the Navy. This plan will establish systematic and structured software reuse as an integral part of the Navy software-systems development and acquisition process. We believe that systematic and structured reuse can be a means to decrease the cost of both software acquisition and development. In addition, we believe that an effective reuse infrastructure will improve software reliability, productivity, portability, and interoperability. Our initiatives include: Department of the Navy-wide reuse policies, standards, and guidance. Domain Managers to manage he domain engineering activity within each PEO and Systems Command (SYSCOM) activity. Reuse Coordinators to identify sources within PEOs and SYSCOMs, and to share reusable components. Incentive programs to produce long-term cost savings from effective reuse for all levels of the Department. A Department of the Navy Reuse Executive Council to evolve reuse policies, standards, and guidance. An education/training program targeting software reuse concepts for senior executives. A Domain Analysis Pilot Project under the Chief of Naval Operations to use as a basis to build a Department of the Navy reuse infrastructure. <<3. DON STARS Demonstration Project>> I cannot leave the subject of reuse without touching on our STARS Demonstration Project. A Memorandum of Agreement was signed between Defense Advanced Research Projects agency (DARPA) and the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) in October 1992 for a joint project to apply the STARS megaprogramming paradigm to the rehost upgrade of the Navy's T-34C Flight Instrument Trainer. The development is expected to start in January of 1994 and complete in October of that year. Objectives of the project are: Build a real, software-intensive product using a process-driven, domain-specific reuse-based, and technology-supported approach (megaprogramming). Measure the benefits of megaprogramming and provide feedback. Transition the demonstration organizations to megaprogramming. This demonstration project is part of a show me philosophy. If successful, it will encourage other Department of the Navy projects to transition to megaprogramming. <<4. Data Administration>> Data administration is concerned with managing data as an asset, independent of the information systems used to store and maintain the data. To support this program, I have established: the Department of the Navy Data Administration Core Action Team (DACAT) to support data administration; the Department of the Navy Data Administration Bulletin Board, which is available via the Test and Evaluation Community Network (TECNET). The Action Team has developed a Department of the Navy Data Administrative Strategic Plan which outlines the vision, strategy, and course of action for our Data Administration Program. In addition, this plan identifies the actions necessary to build the supporting infrastructure in terms of defining management roles and responsibilities, updating and issuing appropriate policy, providing initial training to key personnel, and maintaining a data dictionary and data models to support data-element standardization. The Department of the Navy Data Administration Strategic Plan will be distributed in May. <<5. Functional Process Improvement (FPI)>> The Navy initiated a program early in 1992 to assess, through four pilot projects, the Functional Process Improvement (FPI) methodology and management process proposed by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) for process improvement. The four pilot projects were: intermediate maintenance across the aviation, surface, and submarine environments in Navy; pay and personnel data collection in the Personnel/Support Activities and Personnel Support Detachments; funds allocation in the Weapons Division at the Naval Warfare Development Center; and training-request processing at NAVSEA Human Resources Offices. The pilots were designed to test the methodology and management process proposed by OSD for Functional Process Improvement (FPI), including use of an Integrated Definition Language (or IDEF) for process and data modeling. Pilot project managers provided final out-briefings on 3 March 1993. The lessons learned from the pilot projects and recommended guidelines for future project managers are being published in a Department of the Navy FPI Implementation Guide. <<6. TAC4/TAC5>> <> The TAC-4 project (a contract) has been approved by the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV), OSD, and the Government Services Administration (GSA) to procure state-of-the-art high performance, open-systems compliant computers in support of tactical, business, and administrative functions. This is a three-year ordering, with three additional years options for maintenance, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity, fixed-price contract. A draft Request For Proposal (RFP) was released in February 1993. Following discussions and amplifications with the vendor community (more than 200 firms are represented), a formal RFP is scheduled to be released in May 1993. The current timetable slates proposal submission later in the summer, with award planned for April 1994. TAC-4, designed for Navy afloat applications, is also available to other Department of Defense components, and other U.S® government agencies. The Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps have already presented requirements against the TAC-4 contract. TAC-4 provides a suite of equipment which is binary compatible, and required to interface downward with equipment provided by the previous TAC-3 contract. Both ruggedized and purely commercial suites will be offered. The TAC-4 contract provides performance incentives for the high-end equipment. The requirement is based on the stated needs of the user currently, and in the near future. Perhaps, most important to this group, TAC-4 will be procured with an Ada capability. The TAC-4 solicitation is a prime example of the Department of the Navy riding the price/performance curve on hardware, achieving a common operating environment, extending it beyond command and control to other forms of communications and non-tactical applications, and doing what the strategy of buying off the shelf is intended to do. <> The TAC-5 contract is scheduled to follow approximately 24 months after the TAC-4 award, or April 1996. The purpose of the rapid turnaround is to ensure that the Navy maintains currency with evolving technology, and benefits from the attendant reductions of cost per unit of performance. <<7. Software Engineering Institute>> The Department of the Navy is working closely with the Software Engineering Institute to transition their technology into Department of the Navy projects. Some of these projects include: Assist the use of rate-monotonic analysis in the software design of the AN/BSY-2. This is our largest Ada project, consisting of 2.4 million lines of unique Ada Code. Of interest, 1.2 million lines of code are reused within the BSY-2 by other modules. Transition fault-tolerance technology to the Office of Naval Research. Transition rate-monotonic analysis principles in standards for Next Generation Computer Resources operating systems and local-area networks. Transition of a measurement program for improving the software process at the Naval Air Warfare Center. Evolve methods and processes for managing and communicating software risks for PEO (A). Develop course material for SPAWAR Open Systems Architecture training. <<8. Software Executive Officials Council>> Currently, I am establishing a Department of the Navy Software Executives Officials Council (or SEOC). The rationale behind this is that before we can bring about significant changes in the way we develop and acquire software, we need to change the way we think about software and increase the awareness of its importance in accomplishing our mission. This requires a organization-wide commitment to change the department's corporate culture. The best place to start is by building an infrastructure that can make this happen. This is what I am counting on the Department of the Navy Software Executive Officials Council to do. The Council will serve to focus top-level attention on software-related technology and policy issues. They will address software issues that impact Automated Information Systems (AIS), Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (C^3\I) systems, and embedded weapon system software. The council will meet quarterly with Flag and Senior Executive Service (SES)-level representatives from the Chief of Naval Operations, Commandant of the Marine Corps, major Department of the Navy SYSCOMs, Program Executive Offices, Navy Research Centers and Laboratories. This council will not solve all our software problems, but I view it as a good step to get us moving in the right direction and getting the necessary commitment from the top down. <> This conference has participation from government, industry, and academia. I would like to address my closing remarks to each of these groups in turn. First, to the government -- We must pay more attention to the acquisition of high-quality, reliable software. I challenge you to require Ada with use of software-engineering principles for new systems or reengineered systems. These should be included as mandatory requirements in your Requests For Proposals (RFPs). Second, to industry -- Ada with software engineering is emerging as a critical technology required for the development of future systems. I challenge industry to provide high-quality Ada compilers and software-engineering tools for emerging environments. Support is necessary for the new hardware systems, especially for the massively parallel systems needed in the near future. Third, to academia -- We need highly qualified engineers educated in software engineering, Ada, and related technologies to support the challenges of tomorrow. I challenge you to develop the necessary software-engineering curricula relevant to the real world to make this happen. I would like to thank the ANCOST Board Members for giving me this opportunity to discuss the important area of Ada as a building block for software engineering. ********************** Ada Information Clearinghouse (AdaIC) P.O. Box 46593 Washington, DC 20050-6593 703/685-1477, 800/AdaIC-11, FAX 703/685-7019 adainfo@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu; CompuServe 70312,3303 The AdaIC is sponsored by the Ada Joint Program Office and operated by IIT Research Institute.