The Software Productivity, Sustainability, and Quality (SPSQ) Community of Practice (COP) coordinates Federal R&D to achieve orders-of-magnitude reduction in software defects and the time and cost of developing and sustaining software. The U.S. Government and the national economy depend on increasingly complex software; improved software development technology is essential to U.S. innovation, to leadership in emerging technologies, and to security and prosperity. The SPSQ COP reports investments to the SPSQ Program Component Area.
Overview
The SPSQ Interagency Working Group (IWG) was formed in 1991 to coordinate Federal SPSQ R&D across 19 participating agencies to achieve orders-of-magnitude reduction in software defects and the time and cost of developing and sustaining software. As of May 2024, SPSQ continues to meet as a COP to gather information from software experts to ensure that government investment in SPSQ R&D results in the software development technology that is essential to U.S. innovation, emerging technology leadership, security, and prosperity.
Strategic Priorities
- Advance timely, affordable development and sustainment of low-defect, low-vulnerability software through transformative research in design, verification, operation, utilization, and evaluation of computer software.
- Enhance critical software quality and productivity to maximize positive economic impact by increasing execution efficiency and trustworthiness and by reducing vulnerability.
- Modernize and manage research and regulatory infrastructures to improve the safety, security, trustworthiness, and resilience of systems that serve the scientific and multidisciplinary research communities.
- Develop the future SPSQ workforce by supporting STEM education and training, and supplying the necessary resources such as software libraries, tools, and platforms to support teaching and research.
Co-Chairs
 |
Ram D. Sriram Chief of the Software and Systems Division Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) |
 |
Sol Greenspan Program Director Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF) Computing & Information Science and Engineering (CISE) National Science Foundation (NSF) |
Technical Coordinator
 |
Melissa Cornelius |