Hardware and software readiness: A systems approach

This paper describes a new approach to systems readiness by identifying quantitative hardware and software criteria to improve objective and effective decision-making at product shipment. The proposed method expands on previous work done in the software area by including and organizing hardware data. This streamlines various and diverse criteria obtained from existing quality and reliability data into simple metrics and visualizations. This allows for a systems approach to product development by defining a Systems Readiness Index (SRI) that is applicable across products and releases. This approach combines two ideas in quantitative terms: product and process parameters which have been adequately represented to formalize the readiness index. Parameters from all aspects of the hardware and software development life cycle (e.g., requirements, project management & resources, development & testing, audits & assessments, stability and reliability, and technical documentation) that could impact the readiness index are considered.