1.0 MANAGE SOFTWARE PROJECT

Overview

This activity covers all aspects of software project management, including software project planning, continuous monitoring of software project activities, and participating in project-level milestone reviews.

Roles and Responsibilities

The project software manager has total responsibility for all software activities for a project.

Controls

The organization’s standard software process describing the fundamental software process elements that each software project is expected to incorporate into its defined software process.

The Project Plan documenting the project’s purpose, schedule, budget, life cycle, and milestones.

Inputs

Inputs vary widely depending on the project and when the project software manager becomes involved in the project. Inputs can include any available system documentation such as the:

Preliminary Mission Needs Statement which establishes the justification for undertaking an agency objective or effectively pursuing an opportunity pertaining to an agency objective (as described in LHB 7122.1).

As well as:

Improvement Study Plan(s) (ISP) (see Appendix E (for the Data Item Description (DID)) which may impact any or all management plans and activities.

Approved Software Change Requests (SCR)/Requests for Deviation/Waiver (see Appendix C) which may be received at any time, causing a change in one or more of the management plans (see activity 2.2.6 Hold Software Control Board Meeting) or processes.

Software metric reports from the software engineering process group (SEPG) showing the status and progress of the software project.

Procedures

Throughout the project, the project software manager reports management metrics to the SEPG. These metrics are defined in the organization’s standard software process.

At any time during the project, SCRs may be received. When this occurs, all management plans should be reviewed to determine the full extent of required changes.

The organization’s standard software process, as documented in this Guidebook, provides the processes and methods for managing a software project, as well as the standard set of products to be developed (based on those prescribed in MIL-STD-498 ). The SEPG may request that the project participate in process/method/technology improvement activities as documented in an ISP. These may impact one or more of the management plans or activities. If the project software manager believes it is in the project’s best interest or necessary due to project constraints to deviate from the organization’s standard software process, a Request for Deviation/Waiver is submitted to the SEPG (see activities 2.2.1 Request Deviation/Waiver and 4.1.1 Review Request for Deviation/Waiver), explaining the need for deviation and outlining the new approach. Upon approval of the deviation/waiver, the project is free to pursue the approved course of action with SEPG support and software quality assurance (SQA) approval.

This activity is divided into the following subactivities:

1) 1.1 Plan Software Project. In this activity, the software project plans (e.g., Software Development Plan (SDP), Software Test Plan (STP), Software Configuration Management Plan (SCMP), Software Project Training Plan (tailored from the Organizational Training Plan) (OTP)) are developed based on the higher level project plan(s) and project descriptions (e.g., Preliminary Mission Needs Statement). The Data Item Descriptions (DID) for these plans are in Appendix E. The software engineering and test environment is selected and acquired. These plans may be updated as the project progresses.

2) 1.2 Track Software Project. In this activity, the plan(s) are implemented. The software project’s progress is monitored via metric reports, and the plans are updated based on project performance. The project software manager also supports the project-level reviews.

Outputs

Management plans consisting of the SDP, STP, SCMP, and Software Project Training Plan.

Management metrics entered into the organization’s metrics database.