Managing software development for survivable systems

The environment in which software projects are managed has evolved dramatically in recent years. This evolution has been driven by an extraordinary increase in network connectivity and extensive use of contractors for system development, raising issues of interoperability, security, ownership, and intellectual property rights. Project managers face the ongoing challenge of creating an orderly incremental development process, which often proceeds for years, in this complex environment. At the same time, the dependency of organizations, their suppliers. and their customers on complex, large-scale information systems is increasing at an astonishing rate, to the point that conduct of business operations is virtually impossible if these systems are compromised. As a result, survivability is receiving increasing attention as a key property of critical systems. Survivability is the capability of a system to fulfill its mission, in a timely manner, in the presence of attacks, failures, or accidents. Given the severe consequences of system failure, it is clear that many more organizations should be, and at present are not, concerned with survivability issues. However, when survivability is added to the project management equation, software life cycles can look rather different from the traditional life-cycle model. In this paper we discuss this changing software project management environment, the impact of system survivability, and life-cycle activities that are tailored to development and evolution of survivable systems. Achieving survivable systems requires that survivability be integrated into project life cycles, and not treated as an add-on property.