Reducing software life-cycle costs by developing configurable software

This paper describes a novel method for reducing the costs associated with developing and maintaining software in a well defined avionics system domain. Specifically we have developed configurable flight data recorder software and a set of windows based configuration tools that permit a user to define the application layer of the avionics system software without having to have a knowledge of programming. This method allows one to develop the software for a specific flight data recorder application in a very short time and at greatly reduced cost compared to traditional software development methods. These same techniques could be applied to other avionics systems as well. While adopting our methods would require a departure from traditional software development and documentation practices, we believe the potential benefits are enormous. Our customers have the opportunity to become self supportive on future update tasks without having to employ a legion of software experts. Mature, fully tested and documented software can be produced in a matter of weeks rather than years and the software life-cycle costs can be spread over multiple programs