Acquisition of Open Architecture Software Systems

This research focuses on techniques for identifying and reducing the costs, streamlining the process, and improving the readiness of future workforce for the acquisition of complex software systems. Emphasis is directed at identifying, tracking, and analyzing software component costs and cost reduction opportunities within acquisition life cycle of open architecture (OA) systems, where such systems combine best-of-breed software components and software products lines (SPLs) that are subject to different intellectual property (IP) license requirements.

The goal of this research is to create a new approach to address Better Buying Power challenges in the acquisition of software systems for the Department of Defense. Program managers, acquisition officers, and contract managers will increasingly be called on to review and approve choices between functionally similar low or no cost open source software components, and commercially priced closed source software components, to be used in the design, implementation, deployment, and evolution of open architecture (OA) systems. We seek to make this a simpler, more transparent, and more tractable process. Such a process must identify, track, and analyze software component costs throughout the system life cycle, and be easy to reuse for different system application domains, in order to realize cost reductions and improve acquisition workforce capabilities. Our recent research demonstrates how complex OA systems can be designed, built, and deployed with alternative components and connectors resulting in functionally similar system versions, to satisfy overall system security requirements and individual system component intellectual property (IP) requirements. Our next step, proposed here, is to identify, track, and analyze software component costs associated with different types of component IP licenses when acquiring OA systems, and to do so in ways that highlight opportunities for cost reduction. Expected results will be applicable to enterprise software systems in other government agencies and industrial firms, as well as to enterprise and mission-critical systems for the DoD community.