Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Podcast Series · Members of Technical Staff at the Software Engineering Institute

DOD Software Modernization: SEI Impact and Innovation

·27 min·1 clip

SEI recommendations helped the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine depots move toward continuous integration and deployment.

1. Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Podcast Series: DOD Software Modernization focuses on SEI support and vision for sustaining software modernization in the Department of Defense. 2. Matthew Bukovic, technical director of cyber risk and resilience in CERT, hosts Paul Nielsen, the SEI director and CEO who retired as a U.S. Air Force major general. 3. The episode asks how SEI can help the Department of Defense adopt commercial software practices while handling lethal, safety-critical systems. 4. Paul Nielsen says software became a bigger part of military systems after he entered the Air Force in 1972 and has kept expanding across everyday life. 5. The conversation says systems have become larger, more complex, and more interconnected, which makes modernization an enduring requirement. 6. Matt cites the 2023 Government Accountability Office figure that $100 billion is invested in IT and cyber-related activities, with 80% earmarked for legacy maintenance. 7. Paul describes the difficulty of terminating old systems and recalls Cheyenne Mountain, where the new, old, and original systems all stayed in use as backups. 8. The episode breaks DoD software into four broad categories, from commercial software on commercial systems to customized software on customized hardware. 9. Paul names F-22 and F-35 flight software and Aegis cruiser gun-aiming systems as examples where military software needs special treatment. 10. The discussion ties software, cyber, and AI together, with AI helping development and security while also introducing data-poisoning and bias risks. 11. Paul says the balance among cost, schedule, safety, and speed is a central engineering problem that changes by system. 12. He notes that he served on the Defense Science Board from 2013 to 2021 and co-chaired its 2015 autonomy summer study. 13. He says autonomy became especially important because of drones, self-driving cars, and the difference between intentional military lethality and unintended civilian harm. 14. The episode references the 2018 Defense Board software acquisition study and the Defense Innovation Board’s “software is never done” message. 15. Paul says the Department of Defense had relied too much on regulation and requirements studies, and that iterative techniques gained acceptance as a result. 16. He points to Netflix, Amazon, Google, Tesla, and SpaceX as examples of organizations building fast, testing constantly, and improving on weekly, daily, or hourly cadences. 17. The tone is conversational and technical, with Matt repeatedly steering the discussion from modernization to AI, cyber, workforce, and acquisition reform. 18. The format is a long interview with follow-up questions, practical examples, and a brief detour into an NFL prediction about the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. 19. People interested in DoD software acquisition, AI, cyber, and government modernization will get the most from it. 20. People looking for a short entertainment segment or a purely general-audience technology chat may skip it.

As heard by us

A grounded case for iterative delivery in modernization.

The SEI Podcast Series treats software modernization as an operating problem, not a slogan. Paul Nielsen and Matthew Bukovic spend much of the episode on the move away from years-long requirements studies and toward iterative delivery, and the references to Netflix, Amazon,…

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You want a clear case for iterative delivery in defense software.

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