LCE’s Applied Technology Group Supports Development of Forge.mil, Boosting Capabilities of Military Software Developers
Download LCE’s Applied Technology Group Supports Development of Forge.mil Success Story (PDF)
The Situation
Life Cycle Engineering’s Applied Technology Group is helping lead a Department of Defense (DoD) initiative aimed at using open source technology to create an environment which facilitates rapid development, test, certification, deployment and acceptance of products and services on the Global Information Grid (GIG).
Forge.mil, formerly called the Global Information Grid (GIG) Federated Development and Certification Environment (FDCE), emerged from the Net-Enabled Command Capability (NECC) program driven by efforts from the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). DISA is carrying out this objective in five stages:
SoftwareForge offers software development life-cycle (SDLC) management and version control functions for the Department of Defense’s open source and community source software developers and also provides multiple repositories for personnel seeking reusable software components.
ProjectForge provides DoD projects and programs with the same capabilities available through SoftwareForge, but tailored for the needs of the individual project or program. The capability meets the needs of projects looking for application lifecycle management tools, but which are not doing open source software development.
CertificationForge will provide tools and services that support the standardization of certification criteria, the development and automation of common evaluation methods, and the creation of a standard reporting format.
StandardsForge will enable the collaborative development and implementation of DoD IT and data standards. This capability will integrate tools such as the DoD Metadata registry (MDR) and the DoD IT Standards Registry to provide a one-stop shop for the technology development community.
TestForge will provide a capabilities test environment for all test/certification activities. (Developmental, Operational, Net-Ready KPP, and IA). The environment will promote creation of one team and one set of conditions, every time, to satisfy the decision-making needs of all test customers.
The Solution
With help from Life Cycle Engineering, the Forge.mil team:
- Jointly created the vision for a collaborative development environment.
- Provided program management, system development / integration (hardware and software), and functional/performance testing of new capabilities.
- Executed an agile software development process enabling quicker release of functionality upgrades than traditional development processes.
- Set up and maintained test, pre-production, and production environments, and coordinated the migration and installation of the SoftwareForge and ProjectForge production environments into DISA Defense Enterprise Computing Centers (DECC’s).
The Results
Forge.mil has become a nationally acknowledged project aimed at using open source technology to share information, provide situational awareness, and support self-synchronization among military software developers. In a little over a year, Forge.mil has accomplished the following:
- Provided a collaborative environment to accelerate the development and deployment of dependable software and services within the Department of Defense (DoD).
- Enabled DoD projects to collaborate in a federated / distributed environment (currently supports 4,400+ registered users and 267 projects).
- Increased communication between developers and customers resulting in increased attention to customer needs and a more comprehensive, agile solution.
- Enabled cross-program discovery and sharing of software and services.
- Provides a proven model for the successful planning, deployment, maintenance, and management of DISA Small Projects.
- Achieved the following DISA Small Project milestones – IOC, LOA, and a three-year ATO.
- Earned Awards
- Received Government Innovators Award from InformationWeek
- Forge.mil named “Great dot-gov Web Sites 2009” by Government Computer News (GCN)
© 2010 Life Cycle Engineering, Inc
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