Certification of production-representative/production software-intensive systems for dedicated test and evaluation

Fundamental issues in the certification of readiness for dedicated test and evaluation of software-intensive systems are discussed. The issues are: what is production-representative or production software, what are the effects of the software on dedicated system operational test readiness, how should software effects be considered in the certification process and what are the retest/recertification requirements associated with software changes/modifications? A paradigm is proposed that answers these questions and gives guidelines for implementing a solution to these issues. The paradigm is based upon existing test and evaluation events and uses a combination of defense and commercial standards and definitions to propose criteria for software certification and retest or regression test.<
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