Software Complexity and Program Management

There is a nearly infinite number of software development domains. One domain where there is a variety of applications, ranging from embedded real time control systems, to simple database applications for holding temporary date is "flight software" for spacecraft.
    There is a recent report NASA Study on Flight Software Complexity, Final Report. an interesting quote from the cover page is:

“The demand for complex hardware/software systems has increased more rapidly than the ability to design, implement, test, and maintain them. … It is the integrating potential of software that has allowed designers to contemplate more ambitious systems encompassing a broader and more multidisciplinary scope, and it is the growth in utilization of software components that is largely responsible for the high overall complexity of many system designs.”

This statement is likely applicable for ALL software intensive environments, no matter the business or technical domain. There's a summary presentation at the NASA PM Challenge site Flight Software Complexity. The NASA PM Challenge site is a good source of program and project management knowledge (for the most part).

What's the Point Here?

The point here, is that growth in software complexity is a natural occurrence in many domains. Dealing with this growing complexity is the role of the software development and software project management community.
    While there are many voices claiming to have the solution to the complexity problem, the jury is still out, since only anecdotal evidence is around. For the world of complex system, many of the current approaches to are value tools.

• Iterative development processes
• Test driven development
• Full fidelity simulation and emulation
• Emergent requirements and responses to those requirements