Software Acquisition Management Practical Experience

Studies have shown that for software intensive systems technical performance, cost, and schedule risks are inherent in delivering quality software products within cost and schedule constraints. Design constraints such as software size and complexity, requirements for high-integrity, reliability, safety critical performance, and diversity of application domains make proper software acquisition and development extremely critical. However, to ensure that the suppliers performance meets contractual requirements, software acquisition management faces many challenges such as detailing the contractual requirements and selecting the supplier. The acquirers ability to perform according to the terms of the suppliers contract, monitoring the suppliers progress and performance, and verifying the suppliers compliance with contractual requirements are extremely important. Success in software acquisition and development depends on the following key acquisition elements 1 the Contract, 2 the Software Acquisition Team, 3 the Software Development Environment, 4 Technical Performance Assessments,5 Software Test Evaluation, 6 Requirements Management, 7 Risk Management, and 8 Performance Measurements. This paper provides detailed insight for acquisition organizations that are trying to enhance theeffectiveness of their acquisition methods and techniques. It provides a pragmatic discussion of the keyacquisition elements involved in software acquisition and development for software intensive systems. For each key acquisition element, software acquisition management and development best practices suchas techniques, methods, processes, and activities are discussed.