Ultra-Large-Scale Systems Study Report
What Is the Report?
Ultra-Large-Scale Systems: The Software Challenge of the Future is the product of a 12-month study of ultra-large-scale (ULS) systems software. The study brought together experts in software and other fields to answer a question: “Given the issues with today’s software engineering, how can we build the systems of the future that are likely to have billions of lines of code?” The report details a broad, multi-disciplinary research agenda for developing the ultra-large-scale systems of the future.
Software, says Claude M. Bolton, Jr., former assistant secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics & Technology), is the chief enabler of an Army transformation that emphasizes information superiority. “Software makes possible increased situational awareness by providing sensors into networks that allow commanders and soldiers to see first, act first, and act decisively,” he says. But the Army’s demands for software are rapidly outpacing its ability to manage software acquisition. “We need better tools to meet future challenges,” says Bolton, “and neither industry nor government is working on how to do things light-years faster and cheaper. How can future systems be built reliably if we can’t even get today’s systems right?”
“The DoD has a goal of information dominance,” says Linda M. Northrop, who led the study for the SEI. “Achieving this goal depends on the availability of increasingly complex systems characterized by thousands of platforms, sensors, decision nodes, weapons, and users, connected through heterogeneous wired and wireless networks. These systems will be ULS systems. Although they will comprise far more than just software,” says Northrop, “it is software that fundamentally will make possible the achievement of the DoD’s goal. Yet software is the least well understood and the most problematic element of our largest systems today. Our current understanding of software and our software development practices will not meet the demands of the future. To make significant progress in the size and complexity of systems that can be built and deployed successfully, we require a culture shift. In this report, we identify the kinds of research that will effect such a culture shift.”
For More Information
If you would like more information about ULS systems and the ULS Systems Study, please contact:
Linda Northrop
lmn@sei.cmu.edu
About the Report
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- Study Lead
Linda Northrop
- Author Team
Peter Feiler
Richard P. Gabriel (IBM)
John Goodenough
Rick Linger
Tom Longstaff
Rick Kazman
Mark Klein
Linda Northrop
Douglas Schmidt (Vanderbilt University)
Kevin Sullivan (University of Virginia)
Kurt Wallnau
- Chief Editor
William Pollak
- Information Designer
Daniel Pipitone
Get the Report
Ultra-Large-Scale Systems: The Software Challenge of the Future is available in printed copy or 6.2 MB PDF.
How to Cite the Report
Citations are available for Ultra-Large-Scale Systems: The Software Challenge of the Future in various bibliographic reference styles.