The software supportability and reliability site

Software Supportability & Reliability Downloads

This page allows you to download a set of documents that related to software supportability and reliability that are freely available on the Internet, or provided by the contributors to this site.

Note that the fact that this material can be downloaded from this site does NOT mean it is not copyrighted. Should you wish to reuse the material, you should contact the copyright holder. Where possible, we have listed in all cases the owner of the documents, or at least the source of such material. In this context, we wish to explicitly thank the US DoD to make their material publicly available. We would also like to thank the contributors to this site who have permitted the inclusion of their copyrighted material.

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Standards and Military Handbooks:

Courses and Seminars:

  • Support Analysis for Software - A means to ensure software supportability, Canadian Software Support Seminar - April 1998, (c) by Ramón Somoza. (Powerpoint slides, 525 kB). Included on this site with permission of the author.

    This document presents a methodology used to carry out a Logistic Support Analysis as applied to software, as required for example in UK DEF STAN 00-60 Part 3. This approach was used for real on the EF-2000 (Typhoon) program, a multi-national fighter, with encouraging results. The presentation is insofar interesting in that it does not promote abstract methodologies, but rather outlines practical and proven methods and techniques that have survived the hardest test of all: actual use. This presentation covers the aspects of modification support and operational suppot, and is in principle compatible with all current military and civilian standards.

  • Tutorial on Software Supportability: Methods and Techniques to Improve Life-Cycle Costs, part of a three-day tutorial, (c) by Dr. David E. Peercy, 2003. (PDF file, 815 kB). Included on this site with permission of the author.

    This very interesting and extensive tutorial (part of a three-day course) will provide the practicing engineer with an appreciation of software, the software engineering process, and detailed insight into software supportability concerns. Software is a major component of all new systems and many of the existing systems. The role of software in the life cycle of most modern systems is significant, especially in regards to sustaining the system. This tutorial describes an approach for addressing the support of software as an integral part of the system design, engineering, and logistics support processes. The tutorial provides a basic understanding of how to plan for software support and develop a software support concept. Recently developed international standards and guidelines in software supportability and software reliability are also discussed. The approach is based on the software supportability and reliability guidelines recently published by the SAE.

  • RDIT Readiness Metrics for Force XXI, Software Logistics Conference at Software Engineering Directorate, U.S. CECOM, January 1996, by Joseph J. Potoczniak. (Powerpoint slides, 232 kB). Downloaded from RDIT homepage.

    The RDIT is a little-known outfit of the U.S. Army Communications Electronics Command (CECOM), which is specialised in the Replication, Distribution, Installation & Training of battlefield software, that is, most of the aspects related to the Logistics Management Support of software. This interesting presentation indicates the metrics to be considered for this particular aspect of the software support functions, as well as checklist of things to be remembered when assessing this particular support aspect.

  • The Procurement of Software Dependent Systems - Making Systems Reliable through Software Reliability Engineering Techniques, 13th MoD R&M Specialists’ Seminar, April 3-4, 2003, (c) by Dr. David E. Peercy, 2003. (PDF file, 910 kB). Included on this site with permission of the author.

    This presentation provides an introduction to software reliability with a case study example. The presentation illustrates how one might establish a software reliability program as part of the procurement of software dependent systems. Recently developed Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) standards are the primary source for the software reliability program concepts. The case study is specific to FAA Aerospace product certification and illustrates hypothetical interactions of customer, supplier, and certification authority with a focus on example software reliability requirements and results.

  • Software Logistics - The emerging Giant, 14th April 1994, by Joseph J. Potoczniak. (MS Word, 85kB). Downloaded from RDIT homepage.

    This document is one of the earliest published documents addressing the full scope of software support. Though very oriented towards military aspects (in particular the needs of the U.S. Army), it highlights key issues within the field, in particular regarding replication, distribution and installation of software, that is, some of the main aspects of the operational software support.

Other documents:

  • Support Analysis for Software - Request for Information, 4th October 1999, (c) by Ramón Somoza. (PDF file, 114 kB). Included on this site with permission of the author.

    • This document is a questionnaire requesting information from potential suppliers for an existing military software system, including all aspects related to support, in order to assess the potential support impact during the whole software life-cycle. It is interesting insofar it provides the reader with an overview of information to be requested to a potential supplier during initial program phases for an existing system. The questionnaire defines three types of software items, including the information necesary for each software type. This questionnaire was used for the comparison of software and software support issues during the acquisition of attack helicopters.

  • Software Logistics Planning Handbook, Software Engineering Directorate, U.S. CECOM, October 1995, by Joseph J. Potoczniak. (PDF file, 551 kB). Downloaded from RDIT homepage.

    This handbook is not the very first handbook that has been prepared for the purpose of software support and logistics planning (the Eurofighter Support Analysis for Software (SAS) Plan and Procedures Manual were for example issued back in 1992), but it is to our knowledge the very first that has been made available to the public in general. It is an interesting document as it addresses all main software support aspects, even though somewhat difficult to read for people not familiar with the U.S. Army organizations and due to the plethora of abbreviations. Sample plans for individual support phases are provided.

  • Maturing the Software Logistics Support Analysis Process, Kellog College, Unoiversity of Oxford, March 2005, by Jamie Francis Brooks. (PDF file, 612 kB). Included on this site with permission of the author.

    This document is a dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Software Engineering. This project, based on a case study of LSA (Logistic Support Analysis) applied to the Royal Air Force’s Future Offensive Air System project, identifies significant inadequacies in the guidance covering the application of LSA to software and suggests more appropriate approaches and techniques for the purpose of maturing the software LSA process, improving capability sustainment, and reducing the through life cost of support.

  • Competency and Skills Framework for the Assessment of Software Engineering in the Royal Air Force, Kellogg College, University of Oxford, January 2005, by David Gill. (PDF file, 1.050 kB). Included on this site with permission of the author.

    This document is a dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Software Engineering. It is quite interesting as the Royal Air Force has been quite active in the field of Software Supportability. Though not all aspects of software support are addressed, operational issues and software modification issues are considered. Of special interest are the Competency and Skills described in the document, as they can can be used to identify the Software Support Agents for such organizations.

  • Early Use of Reversed Rate Monotonic Analysis for the Estimation of Required Computing Power in Hard Real-Time Systems, 7th November 1995, (c) by Ramón Somoza. (PDF file, 4 MB). Included on this site with permission of the author.

    This article is a very interesting software engineering technique, developed by the author, based on the well-known Rate-Monotonic Analysis (RMA), which has been extended to calculate the necessary computing power required to ensure the schedulability of hard real-time tasks. Though this technique has its merit from the hardware/architecture point of view, the author has gone even further, and demonstrated how this proposed technique is also useful for software support purposes, providing the necessary growth capacity for future software expansion, and why the "classic" requirements of 100% growth capacity become whoefully inadequate in a multitasking hard real-time system.

  • Is Partnered Software Support appropriate for Military Aerospace Platforms?, Kellogg College, University of Oxford, July 2007, by Lee B. Cooper. (PDF file, 439 kB). Included on this site with permission of the author.

    This document is a dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Software Engineering. It discusses the traditional approach of supporting software with ad-hoc contracts and isolated organisations, which is now considered to be unsustainable. As this approach is too expensive and operationally inefficient in that it takes too long for a software enhancement to be realised, the Dissertation analyses the need to change from the present ad-hoc methods of supporting software, that were derived from those used for hardware development, towards a more cost and operationally effective approach for the future – termed Partnering. It looks at the credible options for software support and sustainability, taking into account the drive for “Bang-for-Buck” and whether Partnering in an unpredictable software environment is appropriate for the future. The Dissertation concludes that by exploiting the strengths of individual organisations supported by an appropriate contract, costs can be reduced without compromising operational integrity. Indeed, if the correct skills and infrastructure are deployed then the time taken to implement software changes can be reduced. It should be noted that this paper is of great interest given the UK's DoD for increasing partnering with industry and even PFI (Privately-Funded Initiatives).

  • [Stark] Stark, G.; Oman, P.; Software Maintenance management Strategies: Observations from the Field. Downloaded from docstoc.

    There is much literature describing software maintenance process models, but few comparative studies on the approaches used by managers in the field. This paper describes three software maintenance management strategies currently implemented by six organizations. The strategies are compared on the attributes of performance, economics, efficiency, and end-product quality. The paper defines measurements for each attribute and describes the data collected over the past two years. Our observation is that each strategy has attributes that make it appealing for implementation by a software maintenance project manager. The key task for a manager is defining the attribute that they would most like to optimize and choosing a strategy that supports that goal.

  • [Erdil03] Erdil, K. et al.; Software Maintenance as part of the Software Life-Cycle, Tufts University. Downloaded from docstoc.

    Maintenance plays an important role in the life cycle of a software product. It is estimated that there are more than 100 billion lines of code in production in the world. As much as 80% of it is unstructured, patched and not well documented. Maintenance can alleviate these problems. This paper describes the nature of software maintenance, why it is included in software development and how it’s carried out. It discusses the role of maintenance played in iterative, agile, component-based and open source development models.

Documents on other sites:

  • Please refer to Bibliography - Where possible, we have provided a direct link.

 
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4th April 2009
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