Software Process Management

ASSIGNMENT 1

You will be creating a software development quality plan. Each week, you will complete a portion of the final plan. The following is a breakdown of what you will be submitting each week:

• Week 1
  • Section 1: Project Goals and Scope
  • Section 2: Project Management Process
• Week 2
  • Section 3: Requirements Management (REQM)
  • Section 4: Process and Product Quality Assurance (PPQA)
• Week 3
  • Section 5: Software Development Methodology
  • Section 6: Standards
• Week 4
  • Section 7: Project Quality
  • Section 8: Product Quality
• Week 5
  • Section 9: Quality Checklist

Be sure to include a standard cover page with name of the course, your name, and the week of submission.

In 23 pagesnot including the cover page or referencescomplete the following:

Section 1: Project Goals and Scope

Choose a project, such as an airline reservation system, an online bank, or an online store (or another project, subject to instructor approval). You will build upon this project for the remainder of the course. Complete the following:

• Provide 12 paragraphs that summarize the project.
• Include 34 features of the system (what will it do at a business- or executive-level of explanation).

Section 2: Project Management Process

Complete the following:

Planning

• Describe how you will create the overall project plan and schedule (12 paragraphs).
• List 3 risks that you should be aware of regarding the project topic. Offer mitigation strategies for each.

Executing

• Describe 34 key deliverables and how they will be approved via the project management process throughout the project. There should be a paragraph or so discussion on each.
• Examples include any of the following:
  • Project charter
  • Project schedule
  • Overall budget
  • Status reports
• Discuss the level of governance (a lot or a little) that the customer wants on the project. You can make this up.
• Explain why the customer wants that level of governance.
• Give 1 example of something that would be subject to this level of governance. What would be reviewed and signed off by the project sponsor, as opposed to something that would only warrant a development team lead review?

Monitoring and Control

• Describe how you are going to track the project's process (e.g., project plan, status reports, etc.), and provide a brief example of what the weekly status report might look like.

ASSIGNMENT 2

Continue with the Individual Project that you started in Unit 1. Using the online library, the Internet, and all course materials, research Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) or International Organization for Standards (ISO) practice areas that cover the following areas:

• Requirements management
• Process and product quality assurance (PPQA)

Start by completing the following:

• Update all of the previous sections based on instructor feedback from Unit 1.
• Change the cover sheet to indicate the current phase, date, and so forth.

Add the following sections to your document:

Section 3: Requirements Management (REQM)

Review Requirements Management in CMMI (or Software Requirements Analysis in ISO 12207), and use your research to add the following:

• In 23 paragraphs, summarize how the practice area is supposed to help teams.
• Describe 2 things that your team should do (based on this standard) in your project to promote quality requirements (12 paragraphs each).

Section 4: Process and Product Quality Assurance (PPQA)

Review the practice area for Product and Process Quality Assurance (PPQA) in CMMI. Complete the following:

• Within 23 paragraphs, summarize how the practice area is supposed to help teams.
• Describe 2 things that your team should do (based on this standard) in your project to promote quality requirements (12 paragraphs each).

Note: The key to this assignment is to be able to review a standard and pick out the important things that you think will make a difference in the project. Not everyones answers will be the same, so choose those that will help your project team the best based on your approach.

ASSIGNMENT 3

Continue with the Individual Project started in Unit 1. Complete the following:

• Update all of the previous sections based on instructor feedback from Unit 2.
• Change the cover sheet to indicate the current phase, date, and so forth.

Add the following sections to your document:

Section 5: Software Development Methodology

• Choose a software development methodology to be used for this project based on the specific need of the project and the level of governance that is required.
• Provide 34 features of the model that crystallized your decision to use it. Be sure to explain these features as key features, with 23 sentences about each.
• Include a diagram, and describe the key parts. There should be a paragraph description of the model and how it flows.
• Detail 23 risks of using this methodology, and include mitigation strategies to minimize those risks.

Section 6: Standards

Scenario: You are trying to create a quality project. Although your team is pretty good, you should make sure that it is aware ofand hones in ona handful of activities that will make or break the project. This is where you use the standards to see where you can shore up your processes. Complete the following:

• Review Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) (or ISO Practice) areas regarding requirements, development, and testing. Possible areas to research include but are not limited to the following:
  • Requirements Management (REQM)
  • Technical Solution (TS)
  • Verification (VER)
• Select 7 things that should be focused on for this project. These should be based on the project type and methodology used (Try to spread them across those three areas.).
• Of these 7, create a table that lists the 7 key activities that should happen to promote quality, and describe that activity.
• In the table, include 2 columns:
  • The activities to promote quality
  • A short description regarding the activity and how it will promote quality

ASSIGNMENT 4

Continue with the project started in Unit 1. Complete the following for your report:

• Update all previous sections based on instructor and peer feedback.
• Change the cover sheet to indicate the current phase, date, and so forth.

Add the following sections to your document.

Section 7: Project Quality

• Based on the model you chose, determine the various project milestones that are within the project. Describe the review process that will take place at each of these milestones, such as the following:
  • At the end of project planning, the charter, project plan, and schedule will be reviewed and approved.
  • At the end of the requirements phase, all requirements and early design documents will be reviewed and approved by a specific person and with a specific focus.
  • There should be at least 810 minor and major milestones (could be a document sign-off to a phase-end).
• Feel free to create a table of these things, and if necessary, map it to the governance needed and the project management activities.
• You can do this with a table or a diagram, and put some comments after it describing the key points.
• This entire section should be very usable. Long paragraphs are not needed. A table or a diagram is more appropriate.

Section 8: Product Quality

Introduction

• Describe the type of product testing that will take place for this project at a summary level in the opening paragraph of this section.

Phases of Testing

• In the next section, indicate the phases of testing that will take place. Identify the deliverables and approvals that will need to be delivered.
• Include (at a minimum) the following:
  • Unit
  • Integration
  • System
  • Acceptance
  • Performance or usability
• Describe each type of testing in 23 sentences each. Include the goal of each phase of testing as well as the roles involved.
• This is an actionable document that a lot of people will use. Present this information in an easy-to-read format, such as a table.

ASSIGNMENT 5

It is time to finalize your Software Development Quality Plan.

Using the Individual Project started in Unit 1, update all of the sections where you have received feedback from your peers and instructor.

The following sections should already be complete, and they may only need to be updated:

• Project goals and scope
• Project management process
• Requirements management
• Process and product quality assurance
• Software development methodology
• Standards
• Project quality
• Product quality

The following new sections are to be added to your project for this week (23 pages):

Section 9: Quality Checklist

Create a table that includes the following:

• List 1012 deliverables that would be required throughout the entire software development life cycle.
• Include a key statement that describes the quality review definition.
• This would be used as a running list of deliverables and will review the criteria for the entire project. It should contain the following 4 columns:
  • Phase or area of methodology where this deliverable is created
  • Deliverable name
  • Deliverable description
  • Description of quality
• Include an introductory paragraph describing what the reader is looking at and how to use the table.

Note

This is different from Section 6. Section 6 dealt with what standards and activities you should follow. These are deliverables, not activities. That said, there may be some tangential overlap to Section 6. This is allowable, but try to avoid it as much as possible, or add additional new information. In Section 6, the activity may have been to create a particular deliverable, and in this area, you simply have the deliverable.

The example below shows that there are 2 deliverables per phase using a waterfall type model. Use the model that you selected earlier and the terms that your particular methodology uses. Although your quality checklists may vary, the following is an example: see image.

Section 10: Maintenance and Support

Describe the maintenance and support plan for this software application. Indicate the following:

• Show how the changes will be dealt with, whether they are defects or enhancement requests. Create a diagram showing the flow.
• Create an overall maintenance release schedule that shows the next 4 releases and indicates the cut-off dates for changes and so forth.
• Write 12 paragraphs detailing the user support plan. This should indicate what the users can count on regarding support. Include any documentation that the users may have available to them, as well as detailing first- and second-level support procedures.

Be sure to update the table of contents, and ensure that all formatting (such as the APA reference sheet) is done correctly.

QUESTIONS

1. The PMBOK Guide is made up of the following five stages of process groups:

• Initiating
• Planning
• Executing
• Monitoring and controlling
• Closing

Research each of the five stages, and post your opinion about why each stage is important.

2. Discuss the following:

• Although they are all important, what are the possible consequences if one of the stages is not delivered?
• Pick the one that you consider most important, and discuss the implications and possible consequences of it not being delivered.

3. Review the latest CMMI model. In your opinion, why may any organization wish to be appraised? Explain thoroughly.

4 During a process audit, an organization's processes are compared to the standard best practices. Two of the CMMI best practices are related to establishing estimates and developing a project plan.

Describe how you would audit a project for the establishing estimates and developing a project plan goals. Discuss the following:

• What would you review, and why?
• What deliverables would you expect? Focus on 34 key ones.

Discuss why these two areas of project planning are important.

5. Research 3 software engineering models, and discuss their strengths and weaknesses. In your opinion, when would each model be the best choice?

6. In the professional world, it is very rare to follow one model completely. Instead, a combination or blend is usually prevalent. Some models are more suited to synergy than others. Discuss which models have natural synergy and how the combination addresses the shortcomings of each model.

7. Discuss the types of testing that occur. You should include (at a minimum) the following:

• Unit
• Integration
• System

In your opinion, what makes each kind of testing important?

8. Depending on the software engineering model being used for a project, testing stages and when they are performed can vary.

How does testing differ in the following models?

• Agile
• Waterfall

Your answer should demonstrate thorough research. Pay special attention on when integration, functional, and regression testing occur.

9. Defects are a part of any software engineering project, and how they are handled and prevented is key. Research different defect prevention and mitigation techniques, and discuss 2 possible strategies and how their implementation can benefit a project.

10. In most projects, the goal is to continue and refine a project, even after its release. Maintaining a project with changes, updates, and defect fixes is often as important, if not more important than the official release. Discuss the following:

• Research some possible software maintenance processes, and detail their value.
• Also research the difference between a feature and a defect, explaining what they are and how they relate to software maintenance.