The I-CASE program is a DoD initiative to bring integrated CASE solutions to government software developers, both in DoD and other federal agencies. Under the original contract with Logicon, the government controlled product evolution, required training to be functionally oriented, and emphasized large Ada development, not migration of legacy systems. This unnecessarily limited the variety of development tools we could offer.
Experience and time has shown that the program emphasis and the subsequent tool suite did not support the needs of a majority of DoD software developers. For these reasons, we decided to restructure the contract.
As a first step, DISA revalidated DoD requirements for I-CASE. This revalidation indicated basic support for the contract. However, respondents requested a restructure of the contract with emphasis on the following areas:
In response to these requirements, the I-CASE Contracting Officer issued on 21 December 1995 a contract action effectively restructuring the contract. In short, the restructured contract enables Logicon to offer a broader selection of tools for developing, testing and fielding applications. As a result, users may now purchase a wider variety of I-CASE solutions ranging from individual tools to complete software engineering environments. This maintains the original I-CASE vision of achieving the economies realized by disciplined software engineering approaches, while meeting the needs of an expanded community of potential users.
Although the primary purpose of the contract has not changed, our approach to meeting DoD customer requirements has. The government will no longer control product migration, thus freeing Logicon to monitor market directions and propose products to satisfy customer needs. This opens the door to support PCs as clients, servers, and development platforms. In addition, more tools will be offered for the reengineering of legacy systems.
The contract will continue to allow customers to select tools supporting their software process and the level of integration they desire, thus enabling small to medium development projects to obtain tools from the contract which meet their individual needs. The SPO will consider adding new products if the marketplace supports it, the contract allows it and government customers need it.
In addition to new products, customers have also requested an expanded training catalog. Although we have successfully trained hundreds of students in functionally oriented courses (e.g. Software Engineering, Program Management, System Administration and Repository Management), customers are now requesting tool-oriented training. The contract restructure meets this demand by allowing Logicon to add tool specific courses.
Expanding product offerings dictated the need to implement a new software maintenance concept. Under the restructured contract, customers may choose to purchase software maintenance on a product-by-product basis. This allows customers to tailor their own software maintenance solution.
Not everything has changed. Integrated software engineering environments, complete with information repository and process management tools, are still available. Customers can still obtain any support services they require, such as sites surveys, installation support and implementation assistance.
Customers may also order specialized support services for unique software development tools, specialized courses, and assistance for other site-specific concerns. Finally, my I-CASE System Program Office technical and program support personnel are available to answer your concerns.
We must depend on commercial market evolution to eventually achieve the ideal integrated CASE environment - a development environment where all CASE tools integrate, interface and directly share data. Current CASE technology provides integration for some portions of the development lifecycle. The restructured contract strives to provide the best integrated solutions commercially available today and throughout the life of the contract.
We remain committed to supporting all software developers in the DoD and other Federal Agencies. Our customers do not need an Economy Act determination to use this contract vehicle. For additional information regarding the I-CASE program, access our web page at www.ssc.af.mil/SS/SSI/ssi.html.
About the Author: Col (sel) Ronald F. Casey