Reducing the life cycle cost of software through concurrent engineering

It is noted that the largest contributor to software life cycle cost (LCC) is the maintenance costs associated with the fielded code. Concurrent engineering techniques can optimize the code maintainability through (1) developing and validating design requirements; (2) assuring a robust design that can tolerate more variation in its operating environment; (3) creating a design that more easily accommodates changes; and (4) building code and its associated documentation that assure greater understandability to ease the relearning required during maintenance. The design initiatives used to make a more robust design with lower LCC are described