Fast Development, Furious Sustainment: 3 Questions for Continuous Evolution

Major software acquisition programs face pressure to meet delivery milestones. Far too often, by the time program leaders turn their attention to sustainment, the window for strategic decision making has closed and the program is locked into costlier and riskier paths. Drawing on lessons from a recent technical engagement, the latest podcast episode from the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute (SEI) explores how software sustainment programs could benefit from an approach that shifts the emphasis from depot activation to the continuous evolution and management of technical baselines. Eileen Wrubel, technical director for smart software acquisition at the SEI, is joined by Brigid O'Hearn, the SEI's Department of War software modernization policy lead, and Kevin Dooley, a senior Agile transformation leader, to discuss this latest technical engagement as well as three critical questions that help avoid the sustainment trap.