From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,LOTS_OF_MONEY autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,8069a486cafde832,start X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian) Subject: Ada RCAS code thrown away; IBM/Loral/SBIS under indictment Date: 1996/03/21 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 143466626 organization: The World Public Access Internet, Brookline, MA newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1996-03-21T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Well yet another Ada fiasco has been flushed down the toilet. To quote from an article on RCAS in the latest Government Computer News: "Even when software must be developed from scratch, the Army will use Ada only if it is the most cost-effective language for the job, [Col. Sammy] Cowden [RCAS program manager] said. He said the million-plus lines of Ada code for personnel applications that Boeing had developed over the last five years have been archived and all software development work has been halted. What the hell is going on? For years, we have had to put up with endless pablum about the great Ada showcase project RCAS, a vindication of DoD Ada policies, only to have the DoD flush down the toilet one-million plus lines (costing over $600 million) of Ada code. The number of DoD Ada management statements that now become lies are probably one-million plus. And if they couldn't develop cost-effective code the first time around with Ada for RCAS, I doubt highly any of the new code will be in Ada. How many boring and unsubstantiated talks have we had to suffer at Tri-Ada, STSC, WAdaS about the late and great Ada RCAS effort? All bull, thanks to this decision. And if Boeing developed a million lines of Ada code that now is being scrapped, what kind of code are they developing as part of the STARS effort? Is that stuff just as bad as their RCAS code? Besides, given all of the other Ada efforts cancelled, why is the DoD still wasting money on the porky STARS effort? IBM's contribution was a joke, Boeing's contribution probably is a joke given RCAS, who cares about Unisys, all topped off with the rampant waste and fraud at ASSET. And where was AJPO all this time? What are we paying these guys for if not to monitor these showcase Ada efforts to help make sure they don't get scrapped. Is anyone paying attention down there? (Obviously not - the DoD SBIR solicitations are still pretty much Ada free, thanks to the lie of former AJPO director Don Reifer who promised to do something about this at the first Ada Dual Use Summit, and AJPO still hasn't acted.) And speaking of waste, fraud and hypocrisy, as well as another blow to Ada's reputation, the April 1996 issue of Scientific American, page 34 has an article about the Army's SBIS fiasco (yes the article appears above another article written by the last honest person in the Ada community :-). Apparently after spending $158 million, the Army has yet to receive a single replacement system for the business applications supposedly being developed under SBIS. Let me quote some of the more juicy passages: "Parts of the SBIS proposal should have raised questions, however. To back up claims that it could reuse more than 70 percent of existing code (about three times the industry average), IBM cited its work for the Federal Aviation Administration and Westpac Bank of Australia. But the FAA was forced to abandon much of IBM's work, at a loss of $1 billion. Westpac was likewise left with little to show for its nearly $150 million investment and dropped IBM, with some critics accusing IBM of promising technology it could not deliver." Only fools in the DoD believed the crap IBM was slinging about Ada and reuse back at that time, because only fools refused to ask why IBM kept on telling the DoD how great Ada was while telling all of its commercial customers how great C++ and Smalltalk were. I blame some of this on prior AJPO and STARS program managers, who were informed of this double standard, yet did nothing. Had the DoD directed those Ada monies to companies that actually believed in Ada, Ada would be in a much more healthier state than it is now. But hundreds of millions of dollars later, we have an Ada on her deathbed. To continue in Scientific American, "Last December, [Russell] Varnado [a former Army program manager] and a small software firm called Pentagen Technology filed a federal whistle-blower suit against IBM, Loral and the Army officials who manage SBIS. The action accuses IBM and Loral of contracting to perform tasks that they knew were beyond their abilities; it also accuses Army officials of failing to enforce the contract. IBM and Loral are fighting the suit. Gee, I can't remember seeing on any Tri-Ada agenda in the past few years any session questioning the statements being made about SBIS, RCAS, etc. Why the silence? I wonder if a suit can be filed against STARS (well at least ASSET, if nothing more). The charges are based in part on a report filed by Charlotte Lakey, who managed the SBIS program from its inception until April 1994. The report describes how the project slipped behind schedule from the outset. "[Loral] missed most of their deliverables", Lakey recalled in an interview, including "their system design plan, software development plan, communicatinos plans - basic things like that. Annoyed by the delays and alarmed when Loral proposed a software price that was "a lot higher" than expected, Lakey decided that the Army should threaten to terminate the contract. Wise management move by a customer demanding satisfaction. I bet Lakey was given a commendation or promotion for acting tough with a DoD contractor. But her superior overruled her, and several months later Lakey was removed from her post. In her final report, she suggested that "there needs to be a better contract mechanism - than hoping you get an honorable contractor". I lose the bet. The taxpayers are losing a billion dollars on SBIS. This and other fiascos all because the DoD has refused to implement an honest Ada management policy. Too many people, even today, spent too much time passing the buck - "Enforce Ada? - My office doesn't have that power - look at how complicated the DoD organizational chart is and look at where my little box is". Lies, lies, lies. A million lines of Ada RCAS flushed down the toilet. A billion dollar overrun on SBIS. FAA trashed. WWMCCS a memory. STARS a joke. And much of this could have been avoided had the DoD had a much more open and honest attitude towards Ada management. Greg Aharonian