THEN & NOW
dangerous, and there were insufficient software engineers to keep it on schedule.
In recent years, DOD stakeholders and reformers have lamented the “waterfall” method of software development, which, despite its advanced age, still has not been retired.
Te graphic that led to the name—in a paper by Winston W. Royce, Ph.D., called “Managing the Development of Large Soft- ware Systems”—was more a description of how things were done in 1970 and less a suggestion of how they should be done. Te name appears to have come later, in a 1976 paper by T. E. Bell and T. A. Tayer of the TRW Defense and Space Systems Group, “Software Requirements: Are Tey Really a Problem?” A 1988 paper by Barry Boehm, also from TRW, described “A Spiral Model of Software Development and Enhancement.” Boehm wrote that the waterfall had improved upon the “stage-wise” (or stage-by-stage) method, but he sought to replace it with spiral development, “an iterative and risk-driven model of software development” that would fix waterfall’s shortcomings.
In some respects, the waterfall method matched the way that Congress funded (and still funds) DOD’s software acquisition: Create extensive requirements and develop everything with a particular end state in mind. Tat works for trucks and tanks, but it doesn’t fit software as well as iterative development meth- ods like DevSecOps and Agile, contemporary methods used by nearly all commercial developers, and which the Army would like to emulate.
CONCLUSION In the last few years as it has struggled with software acquisition, DOD promulgated different pathways for acquiring differ- ent kinds of systems. Software is one pathway in the Adaptive Acquisition Framework that intends to simplify and streamline acquisition.
Establishing that pathway didn’t suddenly make software acqui- sition better, but it is helping to change the DOD approach. According to reporting by the Government Accountability Office, “GAO’s ‘Agile Assessment Guide’ emphasizes the early and continuous delivery of working software to users, and industry
EVOLVING TECHNOLOGY
Technology is ever changing. Years ago information was stored on one computer and a floppy disk was used to transfer data to another computer. Today, devices can interact, sync up and share data with multiple devices instantaneously. (Photo by Getty Images)
recommends delivery as frequently as every 2 weeks for Agile programs. Yet, as of June 2021, only six of 36 weapon programs that reported using Agile also reported delivering software to users in less than 3 months.”
Big problems facing DOD today, GAO said, are “staffing chal- lenges related to software development, such as difficulty hiring
Early electronic computers were in high demand and available by appointment only.
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