DOD-STD-2167A

DOD-STD-2167A (Department of Defense Standard 2167A), titled "Defense Systems Software Development", was a United States defense standard, published on February 29, 1988, which updated the less well known DOD-STD-2167 published 4 June 1985. This document established "uniform requirements for the software development that are applicable throughout the system life cycle." It was designed to be used with MIL-STD-2168, "Defense System Software Quality Program".

On December 5th, 1994 it was superseded by MIL-STD-498, which merged DOD-STD-2167A, DOD-STD-7935A, and DOD-STD-2168 into a single document, and addressed some vendor criticisms.

Criticism

One criticism of the standard was that it was biased toward the Waterfall Model. Although the document states "the contractor is responsible for selecting software development methods (for example, rapid prototyping)", it also required "formal reviews and audits" that seemed to lock the vendor into designing and documenting the system before any implementation began.

Another criticism was the focus on design documents, to the exclusion of Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools being used in the industry. Vendors would often use the CASE tools to design the software, then write several standards-required documents to describe the CASE-formatted data. This created problems matching design documents to the actual product.

One result of these criticisms was to begin designing a successor standard, which became MIL-STD-498. Another result was a preference for formal industry-designed standards (such as IEEE 12207) and informal "best practice" specifications, rather than trying to determine the best processes and making them formal specifications.

References

• "MIL-STD-498, MILITARY STANDARD: SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT AND DOCUMENTATION [SUPERSEDED BY IEEE/EIA 12207.0, IEEE/EIA 12207.1 AND IEEE/EIA 12207.2"] (PDF). United States Department of Defense. 05 DEC 1994. http://www.everyspec.com/MIL-STD/MIL-STD+(0300+-+0499)/MIL-STD-498_10233/. 
• "DOD-STD-2167, MILITARY STANDARD: DEFENSE SYSTEM SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT"] (PDF). United States Department of Defense. 29 FEB 1988. http://www.everyspec.com/DoD/DoD-STD/DOD-STD-2167A_8470/. 
• "DOD-STD-2167, MILITARY STANDARD: DEFENSE SYSTEM SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT [SUPERSEDING DOD-STD-1679A(NAVY) AND MIL-STD-1644B(TD)"] (PDF). United States Department of Defense. 04 JUN 1985. http://www.everyspec.com/DoD/DoD-STD/DOD-STD-2167_278/. 
• "MIL-HDBK-287, MILITARY HANDBOOK: A TAILORING GUIDE FOR DOD-STD-2167A" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. 11 AUG 1989. http://www.everyspec.com/MIL-HDBK/MIL-HDBK+(0200+-+0299)/MIL_HDBK_287_60/. 

External links

• The DOD-STD-2167 standard
• Military perspective on replacing DOD-STD-2167A with MIL-STD-498
• Military statement together with DOD-STD-2167A with FAM-DRE-231