Author Description

Many Department of Defense (DoD) organizations are attempting to provide new system capabilities through the net-centric integration of existing software-intensive systems into a new system often referred to as Software-Intensive System of Systems (SISOS). The goal of this approach is to build on existing capabilities to produce new capabilities not provided by the existing systems in a timely and cost-effective manner. Many of these new SISOS efforts such as the Future Combat Systems are of a size and complexity unlike their predecessor systems and cost estimation tools such as the Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO) suite are undergoing significant enhancements to address these challenges. This report describes the unique challenges of SISOS cost estimation, how current tools are changing to support these challenges, as well as on-going efforts to further support SISOS cost estimation needs.