Richard P. Kendall

CREATE: Software Engineering Applications for the Design and Analysis of Air Vehicles, Naval Vessels, and Radio Frequency Antennas

Today, rapid product innovation is essential to remain competitive. To help spur innovation in the acquisition of major defense systems and reduce their cost, time, and risks, the US Department of Defense launched the Computational Research and Engineering Acquisition Tools and Environments (CREATE) program in 2006 to develop and deploy physics-based, high-performance computing software applications for the design and analysis of military aircraft, ships, and radio frequency antenna systems (and more recently, ground vehicles) through the construction and analysis of virtual prototypes. Code development began in 2008, and eight years later, CREATE is already beginning to accomplish these goals.

A Risk-Based, Practice-Centered Approach to Project Management for HPCMP CREATE

The Department of Defenses High Performance Computing Modernization Program Computational Research and Engineering Acquisition Tools and Environments (CREATE) program is developing and deploying multiphysics high-performance computing software applications for engineers to design and make accurate performance predictions for military aircraft, ships, ground vehicles, and radio frequency antennas. When CREATE started (2007), no commonly recognized set of successful software project management practices existed for developing multiphysics, HPC engineering software. Based on lessons learned from the HPC and computational engineering communities, CREATE leadership developed and implemented a risk-based, practice-centered strategy to organize and manage the highly distributed program. This approach led to a good balance between ensuring a sufficiently structured workflow and accountability and providing the flexibility and agility necessary to create new sets of engineering tools with the capabilities needed to design next-generation weapon systems.

Risk-Based Software Development Practices for CREATE Multiphysics HPC Software Applications

The January/February 2016 issue of this magazine presented descriptions of the US Defense Departments Computational Research and Engineering Acquisition Tools and Environments (CREATE) program and the software engineering approach for managing its programmatic risks. This article describes the software engineering methodology deployed to manage the development risks faced by CREATE, that is, the risks arising in the product development cycle and environment. The approach here is similar to the one for the management of CREATE programmatic risks and is based on a set of shared development practices. The management of these risks is especially challenging in the environment of distributed teams developing physics-based, system-of-systems, high-performance computing software anchored in the three military departments. The CREATE experience provides a concrete example of successful implementation of best software engineering practices in a computational science and engineering milieu that has historically questioned the value of traditional software engineering wisdom and has resisted the adoption of plan-centered software engineering processes. It has allowed CREATE to adopt important software engineering practices such as use case-centered requirements management, use of pilot projects to align customer and developer expectations, continuous code integration of modular components, and scalable product support models, among others.

Case Study of the Nene Code Project

The Nene code project uses minimal but effective processes to develop a physics-based application code for analyzing and predicting complex behaviors and interactions among individual physical systems and particles. Although the expert core development team is anchored at a university as many as 250 individual researchers have contributed from other locations.

Condor: Case Study of a Large-Scale, Physics-Based Code Development Project

Although physics-based computational engineering software is becoming key to product development for industry and government, its development and support require considerable time and resources. A series of case studies seeks to address this limitation, investigating software development practices and lessons learned, such as the importance of agile processes and strong customer focus.

Verification and Validation in CREATE Multiphysics HPC Software Applications

The goal of the CREATE program is to develop and deploy physics-based computational engineering tools that can be used to develop virtual prototypes of ships, air vehicles, ground vehicles, and radio frequency antennas to accurately predict their performance in support of the US Department of Defense acquisition process, DoD 5000. The purpose of this article is to describe the approach taken to address the verification and validation of the CREATE software products. The approach is based on the adoption of a set of practices aligned with the recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences to promote a test-driven development culture.

Enhancing Engineering Productivity

The high level of technological innovation required for a strong national economy and defense is only achievable with a highly productive engineering workforce. AEIC Douglass Post and consultant Richard Kendall discuss how virtual tools and processes can help.