Toward High Confidence Software

Moving toward high confidence software that can meet ever increasing demands for critical DOD applications will require planning, specifying, selecting, and managing the necessary development and testing activities that will ensure the success of the software project. In order to trust the decisions being made, there must be evidence (i.e., an information base of data and facts) that techniques and tools being chosen for application on critical projects will perform as expected. Today, these expectations are mostly intuitive; there is little hard evidence available to guide acquisition managers and software developers in making necessary decisions.