The Role of the Software Factory in Acquisition and Sustainment

Dr. Paul Nielsen discusses his involvement on a Defense Science Board Task Force that concluded that the software factory should be a key player in the acquisition and sustainment of software for defense. "This is one case where the military or the government can learn from industry, sort of a spin-in to the government. The government has traditionally followed other approaches that were very requirements-based. They have perfected requirements engineering. What we have found is that in many cases with software systems, we really don't know the requirements when we start, not completely, and they evolve with time as users start to experience the software."