Managing Weapon System Software: Progress and Problems

Citation
General Accounting Office, Managing Weapon System Software: Progress and Problems (PSAD-78-112) (July 10, 1978) (unclassified digest) (full-text).

Overview
The Department of Defense (DOD) estimates that it spends over $3 billion annually for weapon system software, and the cost is steadily rising. However, software performance has often been unreliable because of serious technical and management problems with the way it is designed, developed, tested, and maintained. These problems increase weapon system life-cycle cost, extend development schedules, and degrade mission performance.

Due to the lack of visibility in the acquisition process, software management is not given the same emphasis as hardware even though software is critical to operational performance of the major weapon systems.