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TITLE VIII--ACQUISITION POLICY, ACQUISITION MANAGEMENT, AND RELATED MATTERS

Subtitle D—Provisions Relating to Software and Technology

P. L. 117-81

Joint Explanatory Statement

(a) Study Required.--Not later than May 1, 2022, the Secretary of Defense shall enter into an agreement with a federally funded research and development center to study technical debt in software-intensive systems, as determined by the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment.

(b) Study Elements.--The study required under subsection (a) shall include analyses and recommendations, including actionable and specific guidance and any recommendations for statutory or regulatory modifications, on the following:

(1) Qualitative and quantitative measures which can be used to identify a desired future state for software-intensive systems.

(2) Qualitative and quantitative measures that can be used to assess technical debt.

(3) Policies for data access to identify and assess technical debt and best practices for software-intensive systems to make such data appropriately available for use.

(4) Forms of technical debt which are suitable for objective or subjective analysis.

(5) Current practices of Department of Defense software-intensive systems to track and use data related to technical debt.

(6) Appropriate individuals or organizations that should be responsible for the identification and assessment of technical debt, including the organization responsible for independent assessments.

(7) Scenarios, frequency, or program phases during which technical debt should be assessed.

(8) Best practices to identify, assess, and monitor the accumulating costs technical debt.

(9) Criteria to support decisions by appropriate officials on whether to incur, carry, or reduce technical debt.

(10) Practices for the Department of Defense to incrementally adopt to initiate practices for managing or reducing technical debt.

(c) Access to Data and Records.--The Secretary of Defense shall ensure that the federally funded research and development center selected under subsection (a) has sufficient resources and access to technical data, individuals, organizations, and records necessary to complete the study required under this section.

(d) Report Required.--Not later than 18 months after entering the agreement described in subsection (a), the Secretary shall submit to the congressional defense committees a report on the study required under subsection (b), along with any additional information and views as desired in publicly releasable and unclassified forms. The Secretary may also include a classified annex to the study as necessary.

(e) Briefings Required.--

(1) Initial briefing.--Not later than March 1, 2022, the Secretary of Defense shall provide a briefing to the congressional defense committees on activities undertaken and planned to conduct the study required by subsection (a), including any barriers to conducting such activities and the resources to be provided to conduct such activities.

(2) Interim briefing required.--Not later than 12 months after entering into the agreement under subsection (a), the Secretary of Defense shall provide a briefing to the congressional defense committees on interim analyses and recommendations described in subsection (b) including those that could require modifications to guidance, regulations, or statute.

(3) Final briefing required.--Not later than 60 days after the date on which the report required by subsection (d) is submitted, the Secretary of Defense shall brief the congressional defense committees on a plan and schedule for implementing the recommendations provided in the report.

(f) Technical Debt Defined.--In this section, the term ``technical debt'' means an element of design or implementation that is expedient in the short term, but that would result in a technical context that can make a future change costlier or impossible.

The Senate amendment contained a provision (sec. 852) that would require the Secretary of Defense to enter into an agreement with a federally funded research and development center to perform a study on defense software-intensive systems that can identify and assess technical debt and make recommendations on best practices for the Department of Defense to employ to manage technical debt.

The House bill contained no similar provision.

The agreement includes the Senate provision with an amendment that would modify the elements of the required study. We expect that this study will both inform future guidance for programs on the current “software acquisition pathway” as well as for all programs to support adoption of modern, iterative software approaches.

S. 2792--Senate Report117-39

Independent study on technical debt in software-intensive systems (sec. 852)

The committee recommends a provision that would require the Secretary of Defense to enter into an agreement with a federally funded research and development center to perform a study on defense software-intensive systems that can identify and assess technical debt and make recommendations on best practices for the Department of Defense to employ to manage technical debt. The committee notes that in the course of
developing software-intensive systems in the Department of Defense, accumulation of "technical debt'' is common. "Technical debt'' in software systems reflects the use of design approaches that are expedient and lower cost in the short term, but that create a system that increases costs to sustain and maintain the systems over time. This also leads to increasing delays in delivering new features and an inability to fix software defects, vulnerabilities, and design issues due to increasing and often unintended system complexity.