Mobile Offshore Units (MOUs) are increasingly dependent on complex software-based controls and automation. However, the industry has been slow to adapt to this software-intensive environment. Delays in commissioning and operational downtime due to software and integration problems are commonplace. This article describes a new standard, OS D-203, Integrated Software Dependent Systems (ISDS), developed by DNV to help ensure the delivery of MOUs with greater reliability, availability, and safety. DNV's new rule helps to address both software and integration issues. This article provides an overview of ISDS and explains its relationship to the CMMI as well as Component-Based Software Engineering.

Software process improvement (SPI) has become a driving force in the global software industry. However, it has not become a popular topic of rigorous research, especially at universities. This paper surveys ongoing research efforts around the world and identifies emerging or potential topics of research in this economically important area

Many factors are combining to promote the use of quantitative and statistical methods by practicing software engineers. While these techniques are not new to industry in general, they are relatively new to the software industry. Consequently, there is significant uncertainty in the community about their difficulty and applicability. This paper provides an introduction to basic concepts and shows how they can be applied to help solve common software engineering problems.

This article describes the application of the concepts of practical software measurement (PSM) to satisfy the information needs of enterprise management. In particular, it focuses on the relationship between PSM, an established approach for project measurement, and the balanced scorecard, an established approach for enterprise measurement. The two approaches prove to be compatible and complementary.

This tutorial provides a one-day overview of Practical Software Measurement (PSM). The measurement approach focuses on satisfying the information needs of project managers. Innovative elements of PSM include the measurement process model and the measurement information model. Rather than discussing specific numerical techniques in detail, this course emphasizes basic concepts.

This paper describes two common approaches to measuring and modeling software quality across the project life cycle so that it can be made visible to management. It discusses examples of their application in real industry settings. Both of the examples presented come from CMM Level 4 organizations.

The requirements of medical software development and testing are discussed. An approach to building better medical software is described, covering project management, product assurance, software engineering, and prototyping. Lessons learned from practical experience with testing medical systems are examined.>

Many new software development practices, tools, and techniques have been introduced in recent years. Few, however, have been empirically evaluated. The objectives of this study were to measure technology use in a production environment, develop a statistical model for evaluating the effectiveness of technologies, and evaluate the effects of some specific technologies on productivity and reliability. A carefully matched sample of 22 projects from the Software Engineering Laboratory database was studied using an analysis-of-covariance procedure. Limited use of the technologies considered in the analysis produced approximately a 30 percent increase in software reliability. These technologies did not demonstrate any direct effect on development productivity.

Results of an empirical study of software design practices in one specific environment are reported. The practices examined affect module size, module strength, data coupling, descendant span, unreferenced variables, and software reuse. Measures characteristic of these practices were extracted from 887 Fortran modules developed for five flight dynamics software projects monitored by the Software Engineering Laboratory. The relationship of these measures to cost and fault rate was analyzed using a contingency table procedure. The results show that some recommended design practices, despite their intuitive appeal, are ineffective in this environment, whereas others are very effective.