Software Sustainment -- Now and Future

Abstract : Today's systems are increasingly reliant on software that must be sustained into the future. To sustain these systems, organizations must define sustainment, meet the criteria to enter sustainment, and overcome some classic sustainment challenges. This article provides an overview of current software sustainment practices and challenges within the Department of Defense (DoD) and a look at the potential future of software sustainment within the Federal Government. There are multiple issues associated with software sustainment. They start with agreeing on a standard definition for the term software sustainment. This is followed by knowing the criteria for entering sustainment, which include a stable software production baseline; complete and current software documentation; Authority to Operate; a current and negotiated Sustainment Transition Plan; and a sustainment staffing and training plan. Finally, specific known challenges need to be considered. These include but are not limited to sustainment with COTS software; programmatic considerations; system transition to sustainment; user support; information assurance; and development versus sustainment. Parallel development and sustainment have historically been done, which may lead to a move towards the more current DevOps approach. DevOps is becoming popularized by the Agile movement. Many issues need to be resolved and the jury is still out on the effectiveness of this approach in the Federal Government.