Summit Calls for National Software Strategy
By: PRNewswire
'Software 2015' Program Addresses 'Unacceptable Risks and Consequences of
Software Failure'
RESTON, Va., May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The findings and recommendations of the
2nd National Software Summit (NSS2) were announced today by the Center for
National Software Studies (CNSS) at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
The report, entitled "Software 2015: A National Software Strategy to Ensure
U.S. Security and Competitiveness," lays out a ten-year program to address
what the summit participants concluded are "unacceptable risks" associated
with the nation's dependence on software in virtually all of its critical
infrastructures.
"This is a very important report that merits attention at the highest
levels of government, industry and academia," said Dr. Alan Salisbury,
president of the CNSS and chair of the recent software summit. "For far too
long we have simply accepted poor quality software as a fact of life. The
real facts are that we know how to build much better software today, and we
need to invest in even better software engineering for the future," he added.
As an Army Major General, Salisbury had responsibility for all of the U.S.
Army's software, both on and off the battlefield.
The report notes that software today is truly ubiquitous and is the
linchpin of the information technology that underlies such critical
infrastructures as the nation's power grid, the communications grid, the
transportation system and the financial infrastructure. "And when that
dependence is balanced against the current state of software quality and
reliability, it is fair to conclude that we are truly a nation at risk of
unacceptable consequences of software failure" in such key areas as:
-- Risk of critical infrastructure failures
-- Risk of sudden and severe economic loss
-- Risk of loss of life and limb
-- Risk of loss of public confidence
Several significant software failures in recent years are noted as
examples, from the shutdown of a carrier's long distance telephone network, to
medical equipment releasing fatal doses of radiation, to the enormous
disruptions caused by viruses and worms that exploit software defects. "As if
to add emphasis to the point, an airline's entire fleet was recently grounded
and thousands of passengers were stranded over the 2004 holiday season thanks
to a relatively simple software bug involving the overflow of a counter."
Underlying such failures are two critical gaps: "The first gap is between
what we require in software tools and technology to routinely develop
error-free software and the current state-of-art. The second gap is between
the current state-of-art and the state-of-practice within the software
industry." With regard to the second gap, the report goes on to say, "Simply
stated, far too great a segment of the industry is failing to apply proven
approaches and techniques that could improve the quality of software products
by an order of magnitude or more!"
Noting the increasing trends toward offshore outsourcing, and the
dwindling numbers of students majoring in computer science and related IT
fields, the report also expresses concern that "we face another gap of equal
importance related to our global competitiveness. The rapid increase in
high-quality, low-wage offshore software sources makes it imperative that
special attention be paid to software workforce skill shortage and wage
issues, to our willingness to invest in maintaining technological leadership,
and to the need to nurture and stimulate our national capacity for
innovation."
The key recommendation of the report is that software needs to be elevated
to the national policy agenda. With this in mind, the report calls for the
pursuit of a National Software Strategy (NSS) through public-private
partnerships involving government, industry and academia, with the vision of
"Achieving the ability to routinely develop and deploy trustworthy software
products and systems, while ensuring the continued competitiveness of the U.S.
software industry." The NSS includes eleven new initiatives, each consisting
of one or more detailed tasks, within four major program areas:
-- Improving Software Trustworthiness
-- Educating and Fielding the Software Workforce
-- Re-Energizing Software Research and Development
-- Encouraging Innovation Within the U.S. Software Industry
Finally, the "Software 2015" report provides for continuing oversight and
follow-up of the National Software Strategy through the establishment of a
National Software Strategy Steering Group (NSG), including representatives
from more than a dozen professional societies, academic groups, non-profit
organizations and government agencies. The NSG is expected to convene future
summits approximately every three years to track progress toward the stated
vision.
The Software 2015 Report makes a compelling case for the urgent need to
address critical software issues and problems that pose serious risks to the
nation's security and economic well-being and calls on the nation's leaders in
all sectors, government, industry and academia, to commit to working together
to achieve these common goals.
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