Volume 1, Number 2

The F-16 Simulation Environment:
Model for Process Configuration Management

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By Tani Haque

In the extensive simulation and test environment of Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems in Fort Worth, Texas, a significant number of mission-critical activities are carried out every day to model, test and evaluate the software, hardware and firmware of the avionics boxes housed on the F-16 aircraft.

Given its considerable success in managing the magnitude of changes implemented to these test environment assets by well over 100 developers working in parallel and concurrently, this simulation environment has now clearly emerged from the pack as a role model in process configuration management (CM) for European organizations to emulate.

There is a paramount emphasis at Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems on getting things right the first time. Unwanted changes in the software, hardware and firmware for the test environments of the F-16 can have a significant impact on more than 20 domestic and international projects.

The cost of faulty software can result in additional delays in programs and lead to cost overruns, such as a recent example from one European program that amounted to 2 to 4 percent of an $8 billion investment in the project.

Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems has been able to fend off such crises and to make major strides in development by instituting standard organizational software processes, which are enforced and monitored at the company level by a board. Such standards describe specifically how all changes to the hardware, software, firmware and documentation of the F-16 are to be carried out. In addition to internal standards, the organization also maintains ISO 9001 certification and is moving toward the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) level 4 standard set up by Carnegie Mellon University.

To adhere to these standards and consistently boost its quality levels, the F-16 simulation environment opted for PCMS®Dimensions, an off-the-shelf and customizable process configuration management solution provided by SQL Software of Vienna, Va., and Hertford, U.K. Company officials at Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems report that the decision was made to acquire the solution in 1992 based on its successful utilization as de facto standard on the F-22 Program, which is building the air superiority U.S. fighter for the 21st century. In this leading-edge program, some 40 contractors manage development activities in parallel and concurrently through the PCMS program, which automates changes.

The CM system of the F-16 simulation environment covers the various functions of version control, change management, defect tracking, automatic building, software distribution, process workflow, incidents management and help desk. At the heart of the technology, an advanced process engine enables project processes and their interrelationships to be modeled and mapped into the system. This means that objects, including source files and composite objects such as executables and documents, can be managed, cross-related, audited and reported on. Process models also can be used and replicated across the development environment and enterprise.

As a result of its extensive functionality, this system goes beyond the realm of traditional configuration management, which focuses mostly on version control; it also threads the processes throughout the various configuration management functions implemented across the software life cycle.

Such processes may serve to define the sequences of events, how the tasks will be implemented, who will carry them out, who will approve change requests forms, and who will have authorized access to make changes during the various stages of development. In essence, these processes and many others provide the blueprint for effective development in a totally controlled environment. It is this level of control that is behind the day-in and day-out, smooth operation of the F-16 simulation environment.

"What is significant for us is that we can map our organizational processes into the tool," says James Carver, Staff Specialist within Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems. "What's more, this system is flexible enough to allow us to tweak our processes according to the changing needs of our simulation environment and the new demands placed on our business."

It is this flexibility of the system that is allowing the F-16 development environment to implement repeatable and improvable processes. "We have found that the more we repeat our processes, the better our simulation environment gets," says Carver. "Plus, it is just good business practice to follow a process."

Similar thinking is now catching on in the European government and commercial sectors. There is now a greater understanding of the need to apply process configuration management to the life cycle in order to better manage the production of complex software applications involving millions of lines of code developed in parallel and concurrently in a distributed environment.

Many European companies are realizing that the alternative to automated process CM is not rosy. Many potential crises can occur in development environments characterized by low automation, home-grown tools or paper trail. Migration can be thwarted because of poor change packaging. Testing builds can collapse if the correct set of changed objects cannot be created. Changes can be left behind in development directories, resulting in incomplete product versions.

Hours and sometimes days can be wasted uncovering why a test build has failed. Such occurrences can significantly increase the impact of the compile on the machine and strain each testing cycle. Another critical problem is that opportunities for software re-use in such environments are curtailed.

All this affects the development organization's ability to deliver quality products on time and on budget to internal and external customers. Many organizations understand that this is no longer just a technical issue, it is a business issue as well, which requires immediate attention.

As a result of this awareness, European organizations, like their American counterparts, are now increasingly demanding off-the-shelf, process-driven configuration management solutions that allow active control of software and increased software re-use.

The F-16 simulation environment is experiencing the benefits of such an approach first hand since its software engineers can easily replicate code across different database systems. "Thanks to effective process configuration management, we have been able to boost our software re-use rate to 70 to 80 percent," says Carver. "This has considerably shortened our development lifecycle and given our organization a unique competitive edge."

For the F-16 simulation environment, however, it has not been enough to simply implement software configuration management and software re-use. The management of all changes to the hardware, software, firmware and documentation is conducted via PCMS®Dimensions.

Any changes in the F-16 hardware has a domino effect and triggers changes in the software, firmware, documentation, modifications in the drawings of the circuit boards, revisions in multi-tiered reporting, and new fabrication requirements of the F-16 test environments. Software changes can affect the way various test station systems operate. All these changes are updated, integrated and distributed in parallel and concurrently across the life cycle via the CM system.

"It is a major job," Carver says. "But, we have every confidence that our processes are sound and that our CM system will prevent potential discrepancies." This level of confidence is, in part, due to the fact that managers now have high visibility over the entire development project. They can effectively set priorities, remove bottlenecks, deploy resources, and transfer staff from project to project, with minimal training involved.

The CM system ensures that the managers know, at any given point in time, the complete status of the development effort. Such information is provided via a slew of important electronic deliverables including a data repository, change management reports, metrics reports, audit trails, configuration management, and impact analysis reports.

"Today, tight schedules and parallel development efforts require simultaneous access to the same data from multiple points. This is why obtaining critical and up-to-the-minute information on the status of all defects, enhancement requests, and physical changes of various design models, requirements documents, and physical source code greatly facilitates all aspects of our teamwork and allows us to navigate effectively through the various life cycle phases," Carver says.

In the past, the organization relied on a paper-based system. Change request forms were always traveling from building to building to be reviewed by different people. So, it was hard for configuration managers to keep track of the vast amount of changes implemented concurrently by teams of developers working on multiple platforms. To put it simply, it was a real challenge for these managers to know exactly the status of the development project, to document all changes in the system, and to appraise upper management on progress made. In addition, there was the risk that some forms would be lost in the stack. Furthermore, keeping track of all these forms was labor-intensive, and this was a costly factor to the organization.

"The previous system also imposed significant limitations on developers who had to wait an average of 16 hours for a change request form to be processed and approved," Carver says. He explains that this was the case because various managers located at different sites had to review these forms and provide authorization. So, it was time-consuming for the developers to collect the required signatures and implement change packages. These delays made it stressful for the whole team to meet stringent deadlines.

The current CM system of the F-16 simulation program has taken away these constraints and replaced them with process workflow automation. Today, developers attach the problem description and the files they want to modify to a change request form; these materials are then forwarded electronically to software lead engineers who approve/reject and action the change requests back to the software engineers. "Once the implementation is completed, these forms travel back to the lead engineers for further verification, and if everything looks in order, final approval is granted and notification is issued to the change originators," says Carver. "From a productivity point of view, this practice alone has sped up our entire development operation considerably."

Developers also have an easier time now configurating the changed information, as the change control function automates the correction process. Therefore, they can create a change package, group together multiple physical changes in a change package, and tie this package to a particular product configuration. This type of activity allows automation of changes from development to test to release, faster testing turnaround times, reduced compilation and linkage cycles, improved quality over the contents of a release, and faster generation of release notes and product errata. "The system works transparently, which means that our developers don't even realize they are implementing configuration management," Carver says.

Impressive strides have been made in eliminating many time-consuming administrative tasks. For instance, in the past, organizing the company's configuration management review board involved coordinating the schedules of many people located at different sites. Thus, it was particularly difficult to get all these people under one roof for a meeting. "Today, our CM review board is set up electronically," Carver says. "Managers can easily review proposed changes, establish priorities, and communicate decisions to the whole team." The system also ensures that only authorized personnel can participate in the review board. This protects the integrity of the software.


Conclusion
Valuable lessons can be learned from the success of the F-16 simulation environment; principally, that it pays to implement process configuration management to manage complex development on one and multiple platforms. What is at stake is no longer simply the resolution of important technical issues, but also significant business gains to be made from improved costs control, higher quality, enhanced customer satisfaction, timely delivery of products, and greater safety thresholds.