From: Wingert@vnet.IBM.COM (Bret Wingert)
Subject: Re: Level 5?
Organization: IBM, Federal Systems Co. Software Services
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not those of IBM
News-Software: UReply 3.1
            <1993Apr23.124759.1@fnalf.fnal.gov>
Lines: 29

In <1993Apr23.124759.1@fnalf.fnal.gov> Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey writes:
>In article <19930422.121236.246@almaden.ibm.com>, Wingert@vnet.IBM.COM (Bret Wingert) writes:
>> 3. The Onboard Flight Software project was rated "Level 5" by a NASA team.
>>    This group generates 20-40 KSLOCs of verified code per year for NASA.
>
>Will someone tell an ignorant physicist where the term "Level 5" comes
>from? It sounds like the RISKS Digest  equivalent of Large, Extra
>Large, Jumbo... Or maybe it's like "Defcon 5..."
>
>I gather it means that Shuttle software was developed with extreme
>care to have reliablility and safety, and almost everything else in
>the computing world is Level 1, or cheesy dime-store software.  Not
>surprising.  But who is it that invents this standard, and how come
>everyone but me seems to be familiar with it?

Level 5 refers to the Carnegie-Mellon Software Engineering Institute's
Capability Maturity Model.  This model rates software development
org's from1-5.  with 1 being Chaotic and 5 being Optimizing.  DoD is
beginning to use this rating system as a discriminator in contracts.  I
have more data on thifrom 1 page to 1000.  I have a 20-30 page
presentation that summarizes it wethat I could FAX to you if you're
interested...
Bret Wingert
Wingert@VNET.IBM.COM

(713)-282-7534
FAX: (713)-282-8077


