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Defense Systems Electronics Group
In 1992, Texas Instruments' Defense Systems Electronics Group (DSEG) received the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award. Within this group, the software Automation Division provides tools and support for more than 100 Government/DOD software projects. These projects include software systems for airborne control; infrared tracking; portable intelligent weapons; missile guidance; and smart bomb guidance. Today, approximately 300 developers on more than 30 different development teams are using Continuus on the SUN platform for configuration management and problem tracking. Eventually, as many as 1,100 developers will access the Continuus configuration management solution from a variety of platforms, including SUN, HP, SGI, PC, Windows, and VMS.
The Software Automation Group at Texas Instrument's DSEG is responsible for providing each of the nearly 100 software development processes to complete their projects.
Prior to using Continuus, no two projects were alike; development code, hardware platforms and operating systems varied among projects, and each team used its own set of tools and development processes.
This diversity resulted in confusion and significant training issues for engineers, who worked on many different project teams each year, and had to come up to speed on a number of different tools and methodologies. Additionally, none of the old environments allowed for projects to be configured during the development cycle. Rather, code was developed, then "tossed over the wall" to the CM group, who configured the project, and returned it to development for more work.
Today, Texas Instrument's DSEG has standardized on a single, integrated configuration management and change management environment from Continuus. Projects are configured from the start, and the new CM solution controls the project during its entire lifecycle. This is a significant change in development mind-set, which has immensely improved the CM aspect of the development cycle.
Additionally, the Software Automation Group is able to provide a single "base lifecycle" through Continuus' flexible process model that allows each development team to modify it to suit its unique requirements. The base lifecycle involves eight unique states. Different development teams may choose to implement additional phases within each lifecycle phase.
For example, while the base lifecycle offers a single "Test" phase, some development teams may require precise management of two or three additional sub-processes. These modified lifecycles with additional test states then allow projects the capability of maintaining several different versions of software in different test states.
Today, Texas Instruments DSEG feels it has made the right choice with Continuus. The company looks to further improvements in efficiency and control of development as projects and products developed using Continuus/CM are completed and rolled out.
File Date: 09/18/95