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SEL's Software Process-Improvement ProgramThe goals and operations of the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) is reviewed. For nearly 20 years the SEL has worked to understand, assess, and improve software and the development process within the production environment of the Flight Dynamics Division (FDD) of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The SEL was established in 1976 with the goals of reducing: (1) the defect rate of delivered software, (2) the cost of software to support flight projects, and (3) the average time to produce mission-support software. After studying over 125 projects of FDD, the results have guided the standards, management practices, technologies, and the training within the division. The results of the studies have been a 75 percent reduction in defects, a 50 percent reduction in cost, and a 25 percent reduction in development time. Over time the goals of SEL have been clarified. The goals are now stated as: (1) Understand baseline processes and product characteristics, (2) Assess improvements that have been incorporated into the development projects, (3) Package and infuse improvements into the standard SEL process. The SEL improvement goal is to demonstrate continual improvement of the software process by carrying out analysis, measurement and feedback to projects with in the FDD environment. The SEL supports the understanding of the process by study of several processes including, the effort distribution, and error detection rates. The SEL assesses and refines the processes. Once the assessment and refinement of a process is completed, the SEL packages the process by capturing the process in standards, tools and training.
Document ID
19990021256
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Other
Authors
Basili, Victor
(Maryland Univ. College Park, MD United States)
Zelkowitz, Marvin
(Maryland Univ. College Park, MD United States)
McGarry, Frank
(Computer Sciences Corp. Greenbelt, MD United States)
Page, Jerry
(Computer Sciences Corp. Greenbelt, MD United States)
Waligora, Sharon
(Computer Sciences Corp. Greenbelt, MD United States)
Pajerski, Rose
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Date Acquired
August 19, 2013
Publication Date
November 1, 1995
Publication Information
Publication: Software Engineering Laboratory Series: Collected Software Engineering Papers
Volume: 13
Subject Category
Computer Programming And Software
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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