National Software Capacity: Near-Term Study

This study provides an initial assessment of the U.S.'s industrial capacity to produce MCCR software. A survey of senior government and industry people showed that 90 percent of them expected a serious problem with the nation's capacity to produce military software over the next 5 years. They ranked acquisition and labor factors as contributing most to the failure of military system development contracts to meet schedule or costs. The study team also analyzed available data about the supply of labor (new graduates and experienced scientists and engineers) and three aspects of demand (ADA systems, PDSS, and related commercial applications) before concluding there is a serious capacity problem. The report describes labor, organizational, and technological issues affecting software production capacity and concludes with some preliminary recommendations for DoD and industry initiatives.