Mission Ready Software

Ann Marie Neufelder has been a key figure in software development and engineering since the 1980s, with extensive experience in every role within the field. She began her career in 1983 as an intern at Computer Sciences Corporation, where she conducted a reliability analysis for a mass transit system. She then joined Burroughs Corporation (Unisys), where she developed a software failure prediction model aimed at competing with IBM. As one of the first to collect and analyze software failure data from a real engineering system, she made significant early contributions to the field.
Her career continued at Westinghouse Defense Center (Northrup Grumman), where she worked on software for electronic warfare systems. Initially planning to move away from software reliability, Ann Marie was compelled to re-enter the field after experiencing a significant software failure. This event drove her to create models for predicting software defects before they could cause considerable problems, addressing the limitations of existing models, which were often complex or only usable late in development when fixing defects became costly.
Ann Marie has refined her models and techniques throughout her career, emphasizing the importance of considering the six dimensions of failure (software, electronics, system, mission time, user, and environment). She developed an approach to help software engineers identify minor defects early in the specifications and design phases, preventing major failures later.
Ann Marie is the chairperson of IEEE 1633, where she led efforts to revise the document for practical guidance on improving software reliability and safety. In recognition of her contributions, she received the IEEE Reliability Society Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. She holds a U.S. patent, has authored two published books, and has written numerous articles detailing her insights and lessons learned.