CrossTalk Honors the 2002 Top 5 Quality Software Projects Finalists Pamela Bowers, CrossTalk
It was difficult to narrow the field from the many successful government projects entered in the second annual U.S.
Government's Top 5 Quality Software Projects contest. As a result, the following nine projects are being honored as 2002
Top 5 Finalists. Look for a more detailed article on many of these projects in upcoming CrossTalk issues.
AutoREAD Customer: V-2 Division Onboard the USS Harry Truman CVN-75
The AutoREAD Pilot System addresses
the operation of aircraft safety-critical
Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment
(ALRE) onboard U.S. Naval aircraft carriers.
It provides a streamlined process for
data collection, analysis, and reporting of
measurement data not currently available.
Flight-critical preventative maintenance
tasks are scheduled and downloaded to
Pocket PCs. Sailors collect readings using
Pocket PCs that automatically perform calculations,
tolerance, and range checking
against the MRC values identifying marginal
and out-of-tolerance readings.
Technicians and quality assurance personnel
electronically sign off on maintenance
actions. The PDA is then re-cradled at the
supervisor's branch office where data is
automatically uploaded, assembled, and
formatted by the workstation application
and uploaded to the AutoREAD Server
Database for query, reports, and approvals
processing. It also facilitates automated
trend analysis of ALRE component wear
through the up-line reporting of the data
from the ship to the in-service engineering
support activity at shore sites.
Center Operations On-Line Customer: 412th Test Wing/Information Technology Branch, 412th Operations Group
Center Ops Online (COOL) is a web-based
enterprise application
https://cool.edwards.af.mil
that provides a
secure means to perform mission-critical
flight operations tasks. COOL is developed
and maintained at Edwards Air Force
Base (AFB) and is used by aircrew at
Edwards, Eglin, Holloman, and Kirtland
AFBs. Users can access COOL from any
authorized domain computer, worldwide.
Currently, COOL supports more than 600
users and leads the way toward achieving a
paperless operations desk. COOL is programmed
to comply with Air Force
Material Command (AFMC) regulations.
Menus, functional buttons, and data entry
options are all designed for easy, intuitive
navigation, and are filtered based on user
authorization. COOL is one of the core
applications for Common Operations
Enterprise, a common flight management
tool set under development to maximize
test effectiveness and efficiency for
AFMC.
Common User Application Software/Data Management Device Customer: Electronic Systems Center
The National Security Agency developed
the Electronic Key Management System
(EKMS) to support loading of key and
non-key data to mission support equipment,
e.g., encryption devices and radios
with embedded communications security
(COMSEC) modules. Its intent was to
provide a stronger national security posture.
The Common User Application
Software/Data Management Device
(CUAS/DMD) software system is an Air
Force developed EKMS component
designed to support operations for COMSEC
accounts and their users located at
any EKMS installation. CUAS/DMD was
developed to make the warfighter more
efficient by simplifying highly complex
EKMS workstations at the user level. The
project contributed immensely to lowering
the man hours and training required.
CUAS provides a highly comfortable user
interface to perform extremely critical
tasks. DMD allows users to easily navigate
information security and COMSEC planning
and implementation tool sets, reducing
exposure to hostile environments.
Information Access Services Customer: National Imagery and Mapping Agency
The Information Access Services (IAS)
program is a part of the National Imagery
and Mapping Agency's National System
for Geospatial Intelligence, which provides
warfighters and the intelligence community
with accurate and current imagery and
other geospatial intelligence information.
The IAS provides three integrated elements:
The Discovery and Retrieval Client
2001, Protocol Adapter, and Profile
Services. The Discovery and Retrieval
Client 2001 is a powerful data access and
retrieval tool that operates much as a Web-based
search engine for libraries holding
imagery and intelligence data. The
Protocol Adapter provides access to
libraries not compliant with the most
recent specification. Profile Services provides
a single point of authentication for
user access and a single point of storage
for user-specific information, enabling
data sharing by multiple clients. IAS is
deployed at 12 sites and provides information
access to thousands of users worldwide.
Integrated Broadcast Service Customer: Combatant Commands
The Integrated Broadcast Service (IBS) is
a seven-year, $53 million project to develop
an intelligence information management
system to support a global broadcast
communications infrastructure. IBS generates
increased combat power by networking
sensors, decision-makers, and shooters
to achieve shared awareness, increased
speed of command, higher tempo of
operations, greater lethality, increased survivability,
and a higher degree of precision
intelligence. The Titan IBS Team delivered
the Spiral One product, the IBS Initial
Capability (IC), in May 2002 and conducted
training and demonstrations for five
user commands. The IC System was delivered
on schedule and under budget. The
IBS will bolster the warfighters' ability to
execute threat avoidance, targeting, mission
execution, and target negation or
destruction.
Logistics Module Customer: U.S. Air Force
The Logistics Module (LOGMOD) is an
unclassified, responsive, user-friendly, online
system providing the Air Force, major
commands, base-level logistics planners,
and base-level unit deployment managers
with the capability to plan and execute
deployment, reception, and re-deployment
operations worldwide. LOGMOD is crucial
to planning for worldwide deployment
of personnel, supplies, and equipment to
meet various exercises, contingencies, and
wartime taskings. On-average performance
gains of 70 percent realized with version
4.1 afforded global planners extra
time to effectively manage every aspect of
time-critical deployment operations during
force projection, including Operations
Enduring Freedom and Noble Eagle. The
LOGMOD epitomizes the teamwork concept
of extreme programming. The LOGMOD
uses a client-server architectural
environment consisting of 40 servers
located throughout the world.
Milstar Air Force Command Post Terminal Block 6 Software Customer: SMC DET 11/MCL
Milstar Air Force Command Post Terminal
(AFCPT) Block 6 Software is a joint-service
satellite communications system. It
provides secure, survivable, and endurable
communications for the president, secretary
of defense, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, and the Unified
Combatant Commanders for their strategic
and tactical forces, including command
and control elements, aircraft, ships, and
submarines, and to command and control
the Milstar satellite constellation. This critical
AFCPT software is used in fixed,
mobile, and contingency terminals, and
aboard the Air Force E-4B Airborne
Command Post and the Navy E-6B Take
Charge and Move Out aircraft. It provides
the warfighters interoperable communications
with other Milstar terminals on
shared networks and enables communications
over the Milstar constellation and
other existing resources. The upgrade was
completed in a dual engineering environment,
combining the efforts of two teams
separated by 2,000 miles working as an
integrated unit.
TaskView 3.2 Customer: Ogden Air Logistics Center/LHM
TaskView allows the user to quickly view
an Air Tasking Order (ATO) or Air
Combat Order (ACO) at various levels
from low-level detail to high-level
overview. TaskView displays what was a
100-page plus text document in a variety of
textual and graphical formats, including
tree structures, tabular layouts, formatted
fields, and raw text. In literally minutes, an
aircrew can parse/sort the ATO/ACO by
mission tasking, display the stick route and
associated airspace control measures in
FalconView, and then convert the stick
route into a combat flight planning software
route - a task that once took hours.
All routing, refueling points, low-level
entry corridors, search and rescue areas,
protected airspaces, targets, and all air-related
support requirements are fully supported
and displayed by TaskView.
Virginia Class Ship Control System Project Customer: Naval Sea System Command PMS 450
The Virginia Class Ship Control System
(SCS) is a revolutionary technological
improvement over the Navy nuclear ship
control systems of previous submarine
classes. A fly-by-wire system now controls
the previous hydraulic mechanical-based
system, which controls the ship's steering
and diving performance. It provides significantly
increased capabilities, exceptional
reliability via software fault tolerance, and
reduced manning via automation. The SCS
utilizes commercial off-the-shelf electronic
components. It also replaces the conventional
hard-wired switches and indicators
with four large and four small flat
panel displays with touch-screen operator
interface. These software-driven displays
simplify the operator interface, reduce
acquisition costs and installation labor, and
provide flexibility and cost savings in lifecycle
support. The SCS components communicate
with each other via three redundant
ship control fiber optic data buses,
significantly reducing the cabling
required.
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