Effective Programmatic Software Safety Strategy for US Navy Gun System Acquisition Programs

Abstract

The System Software Safety Technical Review Panel (SSSTRP) is tasked with reviewing the software safety processes and practices of US Navy software-intensive Gun System acquisition programs from the early stages of the acquisition process. As these systems grow in complexity and as Open Architecture (OA) is implemented, the acquisition and demonstration of safe software is becoming a more challenging task often resulting in unexpected safety risks, schedule delays, and cost overruns. This research presents an approach to mitigate common risks in this domain from the Program Management level. This approach focuses on analyzing historical weapon system SSSTRP data to identify trends that could lead to a strategy to increase software safety as well as reduce unexpected findings at the SSSTRP. This research effort is still in the early stages, but data are being collected, and progress is being made. The goal of this paper is to increase awareness of both the problem and the research effort that is attempting to mitigate the common effects felt by Program Managers.