“Software engineering plan reviews—better for Ada than the mandate?” (panel)

Abstract

In April 1997, Emmett Paige reaffirmed his belief that Ada is ready to compete on its own merits and issued a memo abolishing the DOD’S Ada requirement and substituting a requirement for “Software Engineering Plan Reviews” (SEPRs) for all major system acquisitions. An SEPR achieves a best-practices level of decision making by simultaneously reviewing related software engineering lifecycle and cost decisions that have a greater overall influence on software capability than does choice of a particular progr amming language alone. Primary decision factors are architectures, design methods, reuse/legacy opportunities, deveIopment processes, tools, programming languages, and lifecycle cost considerations. Some commercial firms already conduct similar “architecture reviews” that could be models to predict the effectiveness of SEPRs and their possible impacts on Ada usage. Will Ada fare better or worse under the new rules of the game ? Could SEPRs become widespread commercial practice, and might this help Ada? Technical and policy experts pro and con will explore and debate these issues on this panel.