Regulations and software evolution: An example from the military domain

In this article, the impact of regulatory changes on software development is assessed in the context of military standards. A previously conducted experiment incorporating three standards is further investigated for this purpose, outlining the characteristics of the evolution in standards and its effects. In addition to this experiment that was designed with projects conducted as graduate class work, a real project from the industry is utilized, to demonstrate the similar effects of the evolution as discovered in the earlier experiment. Finally, the results of the assessment are generalized and a forecast is presented for the next potential regulation change, the IEEE Std 12207-2008.

► In this article, impact of regulatory changes on software development is assessed.
► We utilize the military domain to present our research.
► We demonstrate that software development standards evolve in time, just as software.
► We assess properties of this evolution and its effects on software development.
► We present our predictions about the recent regulation update, IEEE Std 12207-2008.