AEROSPACE SOFTWARE ENGINEERING PERSPECTIVES FOR AGRICULTURAL SOFTWARE-DEVELOPMENT

The integration of agricultural research results into useful software- driven systems has potential to aid managers of agricultural resources , How to accomplish this integration while maintaining a high degree o f user-oriented quality is not a simple task. This article discusses s oftware engineering perspectives developed by the U.S. Department of D efense software industry that are used to analyze, design, and build c omplex software systems. This software engineering process was contras ted with the agricultural research process which currently guides agri cultural software development. Problem analysis, solution conceptualiz ation, process definition, and formal team building are four areas whe re agricultural research differs significantly from the aerospace appr oach. If activities associated with these concepts can be implemented within the agricultural research community, it will be possible to inc rease scale and complexity while maintaining the quality and timelines s of agricultural software.