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As the Acting Director of Software and Systems Engineering in the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition and Technology), I occupy a uniquely advantageous position to witness the challenges that interoperability imposes on the engineering community. In particular, I have observed that very distinct cultures distinguish the software engineering and systems engineering communities and the subtle differences in their perspectives, and how these have undermined the DoD's ability to develop solutions to warfighter needs. Although systems engineering, as a discipline, nominally encompasses software, its heritage is hardware-oriented and favors a products-oriented perspective and function decomposition.

Effective operational test and evaluation (OT&E) is an essential part of successful systems and software engineering. But increased program dependencies, network-centric operations, and growing interoperability requirements have greatly complicated test and evaluation. This article examines the policy, process, and practice of the Air Force (AF) test and evaluation programs, such as Force Development Evaluations (FDEs), particularly during the sustainment of systems. Several observations are made regarding the current process and five areas are emphasized for improvement., Published in CROSSTALK: The Journal of Defense Software Engineering, p10-14, Nov 2008.

The information contained in this volume is designed to assist planners in the application of the planning methodology described in The Evaluation of Water Conservation for Municipal and Industrial Water Supply: Procedures Manual. The primary objectives of this volume are to update and revise the existing Annotated Bibliography on Water Conservation, making it a more useful reference for planners, and also to identify, describe, and discuss the underlying rationale, special problems, and useful sources of information for each of the required steps in the Procedures Manual. (Author), Report on Water Conservation and Supply Information Transfer and Analysis Program.