A risk management approach to CAIS development

The proposed DoD standard Common APSE Interface Set (CAIS) was developed as a framework set of interfaces that will support the transportability and interoperability of tools in the support environments of the future. While the current CAIS version is a promising start toward fulfilling those goals and current prototypes provide adequate testbeds for investigations in support of completing specifications for a full CAIS, there are many reasons why the proposed CAIS might fail to become a usable product and the foundation of next-generation (1990'S) project support environments such as NASA's Space Station software support environment. The most critical threats to the viability and acceptance of the CAIS include performance issues (especially in piggybacked implementations), transportability, and security requirements. To make the situation worse, the solution to some of these threats appears to be at conflict with the solutions to others.