Avionics Software Development: Experiences From the B-1 Program

The successful development of B-1 Avionics software has stemmed from basic planning decision of the program's outset. The program manager designated software as a major engineering organization and allocated task and budget responsibility accordingly. The program chief engineer instituted engineering-wide event scheduling and requirements allocation tasks in which software personnel were significant contributors. These planning decisions, though few in number, established software as a bonafide engineering discipline and created the environment for effective software management. The software manager in turn established policies governing milestone definitions, documentation formats, testing approach and software configuration management. With adjustments, these policies are proving to be effective during continued development and flight testing.