CORDIS Archive : Esprit Project 21424

Esprit Project 21424 - SPIKE
SOFTWARE PROCESS IMPROVEMENT FOR KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING -

Business Sector:                  Aircraft manufacturer                   

Application Area:                 Object Oriented Knowledge Based         
                                  Systems                                 

Keywords:                         Project management, configuration management,
                                  elicitation knowledge, software analysis 
                                  and design, software quality assurance

Technologies/Methodologies/Tools: Object oriented, capability maturity    
                                  modeCMM, OMTOMT, DOORSDOORS, ROSEROSE

BUSINESS MOTIVATION AND OBJECTIVES

The need to cope with object oriented methods, artificial intelligence and ICAD, is being driven by Shorts business needs to remain competitive by producing quality products, whilst reducing design modelling costs and design lead times. As a result of the pilot projects having reduced CAD modelling costs by 73% the ICAD software teams must expand to cope with the demand for the development of further ICAD applications. Before scaling up ICAD software development, it is necessary to improve the software process from its current ad-hoc approach to a managed and repeatable maturity level, where any improvements are sustainable.

The objective of the PIE is to define an iterative process for the elicitation of knowledge and to establish an organisational and procedural framework for the development of object oriented software, across the complete life cycle. In addition the PIE will define Software Quality Assurance, project and configuration management functions to ensure adherence to procedures, control of the project, and control of the configuration of document and source code deliverables.

THE EXPERIMENT

The experiment will be performed around the generation of an ICAD model for a generic engine nacelle bid process. This aims to consider all engineering aspects and to generate a number of options with their respective bill of materials.Short Brothers Plc employs 8000 people, 6 of them are involved in the Knowledge Based Systems team.

EXPECTED IMPACT AND EXPERIENCE

Shorts expects to gain experience in keeping complex, long term ICAD projects under control in a project and configuration management context. Shorts further aims to implement a reliable ICAD software development procedure for improved quality and reuse. If successful this will bring Shorts to level 2 on the Capability Maturity Model and best in class for European ICAD development.

Contractor:        Short Brothers Plc          Mr Brian Dunseath          
                   PO Box 241                                             
                   Airport Road                tel: +44 1232 462285       
                   BT3 9DZ Belfast             fax: +44 1232 733676       
                   United Kingdom              email: bdunseath@cad.shorts.co.uk


Start date: 01/01/96                           Duration: 18 months