The process makes for more cohesive software development, he says. “You eliminate gaps between teams. You identify problems way earlier in the software development cycle. We’re seeing benefits of that.”

Raytheon is now working on some of the most vital defensive software systems for the ship. “We’re going to write so many stories on so much software relative to air missile defense or sonar processing,” he says.

The next major milestone is in December, he notes, when Raytheon has a major software review with Navy participation.

“The Navy sits in on our weekly software status reviews,” he says. “We have monthly combat systems reviews. The Navy gets a tremendous amount of visibility into what we’re doing.”