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18 August 1999
Improved Software Development Takes Off
by Bob Ventimiglia

Process-based configuration management aids aircraft builder

Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems (LMAS) of Marietta, Ga., like many manufacturing enterprises across the country, is always looking for new and innovative ways to develop software to boost marketplace competitiveness. The discipline of process-based configuration management (CM) gave us a smoother software development environment where the business rules are known to all and are properly enforced.

Currently, our Marietta facility develops and produces the C-130J Hercules. The "J" is the latest version of this commercial and defense transport tactical airlifter. To date, more than 2,100 C-130s have been built in dozens of variations and are flown by more than 60 nations. They carry troops, vehicles, and armaments into battle. They drop paratroopers and supplies. They serve as airborne and ground refuelers. They provide emergency evacuation of disaster victims and humanitarian relief via air-dropped emergency supplies. They provide airborne early-warning systems and maritime surveillance. They have recovered space capsules and worn skis in Antarctica. Surviving the toughest flights, the roughest landings, and the constant pounding of heavy cargo, many of the earliest C-130s are still active today.

To continue building this popular aircraft, we decided to place our business-critical software assets under the control of process-based CM technology after witnessing its successful implementation in the Lockheed Martin F-22 program-the Air Force air-superiority fighter for the next century. The tool we selected, PVCS Dimensions, is the offspring of Merant, an enterprise application development organization based in Mountain View, Calif. The software CM provides integrated version, change, and process management functionality.

LMAS initiated this capabilities upgrade because this type of process-based CM enhances productivity and supports a team infrastructure by automating the organizational processes associated with each of the CM functions. Such a system accomplishes this via an advanced process engine integrated into the product.

In this context, the purpose of this process engine is to allow project rules and their interrelationships to be modeled and mapped into the system according to well-defined change control and authorization policies for application modifications. In this way, source files, executables, documents, and other objects can be managed, cross-related, audited, and reported on. Thus, this type of cutting-edge technology enables the development team to reuse and replicate process models according to the evolving project and enterprise needs.

In such a setup, the process management features of such solutions can be used to define the process life cycle for the configuration objects. Another key advantage of such a process engine is that it provides a control plan. This one offers a useful road map for deriving user-defined rules and procedures. It regulates the making of the application and its related processes. It also lets the development team at LMAS specify roles and assign to team members responsibilities for building and assembling various parts of the C-130J software products. Eight variations of eight C-130J software configuration items had to be developed concurrently and in parallel.

Overall, such steps increase the team's accountability. To make this happen, LMAS restructured its development environment. This required delegating more authority and accountability to software developers and allowing them to execute process configuration management, mostly on their own.

As part of this plan, we are working on achieving 100% developer-executed CM so that CM practitioners will not have to be involved in day-to-day development activities. The CM practitioners will evolve into systems engineers concerned with the overall development process and not the day-to-day CM details. They will maintain the process and the tools that support it, transferring know-how and expertise to our developers while eliminating the need for a configuration manager. Practically speaking, this means that the developers at LMAS implement integrated change, version, and process management on a daily basis while executing the parallel development, integration, and flight test of the various software configuration items.

In change management, for instance, the company's development team creates change documents pertaining to defects or change requests within the process-based CM system. Among various activities, they enter attribute fields to define the specifics of the change documents, such as its severity or priority. Once this is done, developers then modify the application part impacted by the change document. Next, development team members save the change document into the solution. As a result, the document is now registered and ready to be processed by the next person in the life cycle of the change document.

The version management function of the process-based CM system automates the versioning, building, release, and distribution of software across the life cycle. This way, development team members can implement version and revision control of their design and coding. What's more, they can conduct build management, release control, maintenance, and traceability.

Version management is also implemented in parallel and concurrently. For this purpose, they use the mechanism of work sets, which include groups of objects. In such a framework of operation, a particular work set, for instance, may be designated for functional changes, while another work set will focus on maintenance or customization.

Users can also access a list showcasing the physical directory structure, which features the version objects. Project team members can work directly against the physical directory structure. And, they can perform version management operations such as extract (check out) and return (check in). Making these activities seamless is achieved via the process workflow and process management capability of the tool, which routes change documents only to those with such a designated role in the life cycle. This prevents unauthorized access to software.

We already see significant improvements in the way we allocate our resources over traditional development environments, where a project manager generally heads the CM functions. As a result, only 3-5% of our development staff is needed to implement process CM. In other environments, this number is typically three to five times higher.

The process-based CM solution at LMAS has paved the way for these productivity gains because the new system allows the organization to map and-refine its processes in the software product. So, the system provides a road map for process improvement. The solution works by providing instant visibility on the status of the software at any given point in the life cycle. This approach serves to protect the integrity of the applications being developed.

For us, achieving process improvements is critical, as we are now seeking to reach CMM level 4 and 5. Established by the Software Engineering Institute, CMM level 4 represents an organization deriving metrics and CMM level 5 represents an enterprise achieving continuous process improvement and technology change management. In this framework of operations, our process-based CM system plays a critical role in reaching these two major objectives.

The system allows the software development environment to eliminate manual tasks. This increases the team's ability to innovate applications, since redundancies have been eliminated and more time is available to concentrate on the creative aspect of the job. Moreover, the process solution allows more than 100 developers to effectively work in parallel in a distributed environment and to coordinate all aspects of their development efforts.

As a result, the process-based CM solution makes a significant difference in the building of the C-130J Hercules safety-critical applications, including the mission computer, bus interface unit, and the groundbase data systems, which incorporate maintenance routines and aircraft analysis.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) demands that we maintain strict control over our build-and-change control processes. The process-based CM solution lets us better comply with those FAA requirements.

Clearly, such a practice can also benefit commercial manufacturing enterprises because it provides a sure way to achieve quality, speed, and reliability of operations. Such a strategic approach can pay substantial dividends for other manufacturing organizations, which focus on building a wide range of creative and high-quality applications to better meet the needs of internal and external customers. This approach lets the organization enforce its business rules across the enterprise.

Additional Information

Author Information

Bob Ventimiglia is team coach of the Environment, Tools, and Software Configuration Management Team at LMAS in Marietta, Ga. Ventimiglia previously held the positions of F-22 environmental control and brake system software manager, where he managed development and implementation of four software configuration items. Ventimiglia earned both an undergraduate degree in aeronautics and astronautics and a master's degree in engineering mechanics from New York University.