The workshop was instigated by Mr. Sam DiNitto of the USAF's Rome Laboratory. The seminal idea of the workshop stemmed from a paper that Walt Scacchi had prepared on "Understanding Software Productivity". The objective of the workshop was to propose research and development initiatives that should be considered by the USAF, focused on modeling and simulation technologies, that could be employed to improve the predictability for the acquisition of software intensive systems.

The first part of the workshop was a panel during which Barry Boehm and Walt Scacchi presented ideas for the program from a seminal white paper that they had prepared entitled Simulation and Modeling for Software Acquisition (SAMSA): Plans and White Paper. Dr. Ed Feigenbaum, AF Chief Scientist, presented his views of the concept. Bob Kent, of the USAF's Electronic Systems Center, made a presentation of the Electronic Systems Command (ESC) PRISM program, a component based program to establish a product line acquisition infrastructure for command and control systems acquired by the ESC. That was followed by a series of brief presentations from the blue ribbon participants which responded to the points of the white paper. Subsequently, three working groups examined different aspects of the initiative: Architecture/Product M&S Technology, Process M&S Technology, and M&S Technology/Acquisition Integration.

The working groups reported on there findings at the conclusion of the two day workshop. While these recommendations have to be considered preliminary the top level concepts included:

- the development of a Feasibility Analysis Model. This model would be used by acquisition planners to determine the early feasibility of system implementation based on a given set of requirements. The model would be enhanced, in incremental fashion, to develop a robust model that would include advanced capabilities.

- the development of an Architecture Feasibility Workbench. This work bench would be used by acquisition planners to plan the acquisition of systems. Its capabilities would include knowledge bases for different application domains, analysis basis's supporting tradeoff decisions, and the integration of various supporting models.

- the development of an advanced COCOMO style model that would afford consideration for a different basis other than size (e.g., source lines of code), the provision for creeping requirements, dealing with hardware/software architectural choices, COTS integration and reuse, sensitivity and confidence analysis, and multi-site and life-cycle considerations.

The blue ribbon panel plans on meeting October 16 and 17 to refine the recommendations of the workshop into a coherent program for the initiative. It is expected to focus on the Feasibility Analysis Workbench, integrating into the workbench the various technology suggestions that emanated from the other recommendations of the working groups.

While it would be entirely premature to predict the result of the blue ribbon panel's efforts, it certainly is well conceived and will could result in a significant program and capability software acquisition. Over the next year it is expected that efforts will be focused on articulating the initiative to the affected and interested parties across the Air Force in order to develop acceptance for the concept. The results of the initiative are expected to be fully documented in a report delivered to Mr. Mosemann's office in December of this year.