Transition to Ada

This report addresses issues relevant to the transition to the use of Ada from a Corps of Engineers perspective. The direct discussion of these issues is preceded by background material on Ada itself. First, the Department of Defense DoD software crisis that led to the development of Ada is described and the causes underlying it are discussed. Next, a brief history of Ada is presented to show how it fits into the Governments approach to meeting the crisis. This includes a discussion of the guidelines which apply to the use of Ada, specifically the Congressional mandate to use Ada and the pertinent DoD and Army regulations. The second major section of this report discusses the Corps transition to Ada. This transition will involve not only a change in the programming language used by the Corps, but also a change in development philosophy software engineering principles must be incorporated into the development process for the transition to be successful. The various issues to be addressed by the Corps in order to accomplish this are then presented. The report concludes with recommendations concerning practical steps Corps development sites can take to ensure a successful transition to the use of Ada. Ada, Software engineering, Rational environment.