DOD DEVELOPS SINGLE SET OF SOFTWARE QUALITY STANDARDS.

The military standards and guidelines used by the US Department of Defense (DOD) for evaluating software quality are conflicting, redundant, and in many cases, inadequate. As a result, there is a lot of confusion and duplication of effort in program offices, contractors have maintained multiple management systems, and unnecessary costs have been added to the software acquisition process. The Joint Logistics Commanders are implementing a Triservice Software Quality Standardization Program, DOD-STD-2168. This standard, in conjunction with DOD-STD-2167, will require the contractor to implement a systematic and proven process for achieving software quality. The authors highlight the requirements of the new standard, identify some of its major impacts on defense contractors, desribe the implmentation plans, and summarize the expected benefits.