The Air Force computer program acquisition concept by MILTON

INTRODUCTION The classic approach to the development of Air Force operational computer programs has been to award separate contracts for the hardware and for the "software" aspects of an electronic system. The integration of the hardware and the "software" into a homogeneous total system has not always been a planned certainty, primarily due to the lack of definitive management procedures and contractor guidance and control techniques for the area popularly known as "soft-ware." It was with this history in mind that a study! was initiated to evolve a technique which would permit the following: a. Development of contractual requirements standards to provide positive control over the contractor's effort in the development of computer programs. b. Development of a series of principles and procedures which would be applied to the configuration management of computer programs. c. Development of a series of design standards and specifications for use during computer program design and development. d. And most important of all, to develop an orderly process of "software" production that would assure full compatibility and timeliness with hardware production. The "development" and "acquisition" of computer programs, as discussed in this paper, has been broadly categorized to two areas: a. Those early events, activities and steps involved in INITIALLY acquiring the computer hardware and the related computer programs. Here is the arena for activities and problems from the viewpoint of the system manager, the system designer, and the system acquisition agency. b. Those events and activities by the military user and implementor to maintain and constantly update the computer programs and the com-