RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF AN EXTENSIBLE, TAILORABLE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS AND PRODUCT....

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT IS A COMPLEX AND PROLIFIC PHENOMENA IN WHICH A VARIETY OF INTERRELATED PROCESSES ARE INVOLVED ANDA MYRIAD OF PRODUCTS ARE CREATED. FOR DEVELOPMENT TO OCCUR SMOOTHLY AND EFFICIENTLY, THE PROCESSES AND PRODUCTS MUST BE METICULOUSLY PLANNED AND DOCUMENTD. IN THE WORLD OF GOVERNMENT SPONSORED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT, A NUMBER OF STANDARDS EXIST TO INSURE JUST SUCH PLANNING AND DOCUMENTATION. THE FLEXABILITY PROVIDED BY THESE STANDRADS, HOWEVER, TRANSFERS THE BURDEN OF INSTRUMENTATION ONTO THE DEVELOPER WHO IS FACED WITH A GREAT MANY REPRESENTATION AND PRODUCTION INCOMPATABILITIES AND PROBLEMS. TO ADDRESS THIS PROBLEM, AN EFFORT TO DEVELOP AN EXTENSIBLESOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS AND PRODUCT REPRESENTATION AND A COMPLEMENTARY DOCUMENTATION AND SUPPORT ENVIRONMENT AROUND THIS PRESENTATION IS PROPOSED. THIS EFFORT WILL FORMALIZE THE REPRESENTATION BY UTILIZING TECHNIQUE OF SEMANTIC MODELING. THE SUPPORT ENVIRONMENT WILL BE ELABORATED BY IDENTIFYING THE TOOLS AND TYPES OF SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATIONNEEDED TO MAKE PLANNING AND DOCUMENTATION PRACTICAL. THE PROPOSED EFFORT HAS BEEN STRUCTURED TO INCORPORATE TECHNOLOGIES ALREADY BEING UTILIZED ON DARPA TECHNOLOGY PROGRAMS SUCH AS STARS AND ARCADIA AS WELL AS COMMERCIAL STANDARDS. LONG TERM PLANS CALL FOR THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF THIS TECHNOLOGY AS A SUPPORT TECHNOLOGY FOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERING ENVIRONMENTS. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS/POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONSTHE TECHNOLOGY IS EXPECTED TO HAVE A BROAD RANGE OF APPLICATIONS INBOTH GOVERNMENT AND COMMERCIAL MARKETS. THE TECHNOLOGY WILL BE PARTICULARLY USEFUL IN SUPPORTING STANDARDIZED TOOLS FOR CAPTURING AND DOCUMENTING INFORMATION ABOUT SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS. THE EXTENSIBILITY AND TAILORABILITY OF THE APPROACH WILL ENABLE THE